HISTORY 


BRAHAM  LINCOLN 


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LIBRARY  OF , 

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FIDE  ET  FORTITUDINE 


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LINCOLN  ROOM 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 


MEMORIAL 

the  Class  of  1901 

founded  by 

HARLAN  HOYT  HORNER 

and 

HENRIETTA  CALHOUN  HORNER 


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Great   Americans   of  History 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 


A  CHARACTER  SKETCH 


BY 

ROBERT     DICKINSON     SHEPPARD,     DD. 

Prof,  of  American  and  English  History,  Northwestern  University 


WITH     SUPPLEMENTARY     ESSAY,    BY 

G.      MERCER     ADAM 

Late  Editor  of  "Self-Culture"  Magazine,  Etc.,  Etc. 


ALSO,   SUGGESTIONS    FROM    THE    LIFE    OF    LINCOLN,    BY 

Prof.    FRANCIS  W.   SHEPARDSON,   PH.  D. 

of  the  University   of  Chicago 


THE    EARLY    YEARS    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN,    BY 

Prof.   GOLDWIN  SMITH,   D.  C.  L.  (Oxon). 

of  Cornell  University. 
TOGETHER    WITH 

ANECDOTES,    CHARACTERISTICS,    AND   CHRONOLOGY. 


H.   G.   CAMPBELL    PUBLISHING  CO. 

MILWAUKEE. 
1903. 


GREAT  AMERICANS  OF  HISTORY  SERIES. 


Thomas  Jefferson,  bv  Edward  S. 
Ellis.  A.  M.,  Author  of  "The 
People's  Standard  History  of  the 
United  States."  etc.  With  Sup- 
plementary Essay  by  G.  Mercer 
Adam.  Late  Editor  of  "Self-Oult- 
ure"  Magazine,  with  an  Account 
of  the  Louisiana  Purcha.ae,  to- 
gether with  Anecdotes,  Charac- 
teristics, Chronology  and  Say- 
ings. 

James  Otis,  by  John  Clark  Rid- 
path,  LL.  D.,  Author  of  "Rid- 
path's  History  of  the  United 
States."  etc.  With  Supplemen- 
tary Essav  by  G.  Mercer  Adam. 
Late  Editor  of  'Self-Culture" 
Magazine:  together  with  Anec- 
dotes, Characteristics,  and  Chro- 
nology. 

John  Hancock,  by  John  R.  Musick, 
Author  of  "The  Columbian  His- 
torial  Novels,"  etc.  With  Sup- 
plementary Essay  by  G.  Mercer 
Adam,  Late  Editor  of  "Self-Cul- 
ture" Magazine;  together  with 
Anecdotes,  Characteristics,  and 
Chronology. 

Samuel  Adams,  bv  Samuel  Fallows, 
D.  D..  LL.  D.,  Es-Supt.  of  Pub- 
lic Instruction  of  Wisconsin; 
Ex-Pres.  Illinois  Wesleyan  Uni- 
versity. V.^ith  Supplementary 
Essay  by  G.  Mercer  Adam.  Late 
Editor  of  "Self-Culture"  Maga- 
zine; together  with  Anecdotes, 
Characteristics, and  Chronology! 

Benjamin  Franklin,  by  Frank 
Strong.  Ph.  D..  Lecturer  on 
United  States  History,  Yale  Uni- 
versity. New  Haven.  Conn.  With 
Supplemental  Essay  by  G.  Mercer 
Adam.  Late  Editor  of  "  Self-Cul- 
ture" Magazine,  etc.,  and  a. 
Character  Study  by  Prof.  Charles 
K.  Edmunds.  Ph.D.  ,of  Johns  Hop- 
kins University;  together  with 
Anecdotes,  Characteristics,  and 
Chronology. 

John  adams,  by  Samuel  Willard. 
LL.  D.,  Author  of  "Synopsis  of 
History,"  etc.  With  Supplemen- 
tary Essay  by  G.  Mercer  Adam, 
Late  Editor  of  "Self-Culture" 
Magazine;  together  with  Anec- 
dotes. Characteristics,  and  Chro- 
nology. 


^i.oo  per  Volume. 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON,  by  Edward 
S.  Ellis,  A.M.,  Author  of  "The 
People's  Standard  History  of  the 
United  States,"  etc.  With  Sup- 
plementary Essay  by  G.  Mercer 
Adam.  Late  Editor  of  "Self-Cul- 
ture" Magazine,  etc  ;  together 
with  Anecodotes,  Charact..-ris- 
tics,  and  Chronology. 

George  Washington,  by  Eugene 
Parsons,  Ph.  D.,  Lecturer  on 
American  History,  etc.  With 
Supplementary  Essay  by  G.  Mer- 
cer Adam,  Late  Editor  of  -'Self- 
Culture"  Magazine :  with  Sugges- 
tions by  Prof.  Heni-y  Wade 
Rogers,  LL.  D..  of  Yale  Univer- 
sity; together  -with  Anecdotes, 
Characteristics. and  Chronology. 

John  Randolph,  by  Richard  Heath 
Dabney,  M.  A..  Ph.  D.,  Proiessor 
of  History.  University  of  Vir- 
ginia. With  Supplementary 
Essay  by  G.  Mercer  Adam,  Late 
Editor  of  "Self  Culture"  Maga- 
zine-, together  with  Anecdotes, 
Characteristics,  and  Chronology. 

Daniel  Webster,  by  Elizabeth  A. 
Reed,  A.  M  ,  L.  H.  D..  Ex-Pres. 
Illinois  Woman's  Press  Associa- 
tion. With  Supplementary  Es- 
say by  G.  Mercer  Adam.  Late  Edi- 
tor of  "Self-Culture"  Magazine; 
together  with  Anecdotes.  Char- 
acteristics, and  Chronology. 

Henry  Clay,  by  H.  W.  Caldwell, 
A.  M  ,  Pn.  B.,  Professor  of  Anieri- 
can  History.  University  of  Ne- 
braska. With  Supplementary 
Essay  by  G.  Mercer  Adam.  Late 
Editor  of  '-Self-Culture"  Maga- 
zine; together  with  Ancedotes. 
Characteristics,  and  Chronology. 

ABRAHAM  Lincoln,  by  Robert  Dick- 
inson Sheppard,  D.  D..  Professor 
of  American  and  English  His- 
tory. Northwestern  University. 
With  Supplementary  Essay  by  G. 
Mercer  Adam,  Late  Editor  of 
-Self-Culture''  Magazine,  etc.. 
also  Suggestions  from  the  Life 
of  Lincoln  by  Prof.  Francis  W. 
Shepardson.  Ph  D..  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Chicago.  Together 
with  Anecdotes,  Characteristics, 
and  Chronology. 

^l2.oo  per  Set 


H.   G.   CAMPBELL  PUBLISHING  CO., 

Milwaukee. 


Copyright,  1899, 
By    THE    UNIVERSITY    ASSOCIATION 

Copyright,  190J, 
By   H.   G.    CAMPBELL    PUBLISHING    CO. 


l^-i^^'-  •  "ii^-***^*  •  t£-«^  • '  -  ■ 


IT  is  a  far  cry  from  a  Kentucky  cabin  to  the  White 
House  at  Washington,  from  the  estate  of  a  poor  white 
child  in  the  south  to  that  of  Chief  Magistrate  of  the 
United  States  of  America.  Yet  it  is  our  task  to  show 
how  that  distance  was  spanned  in  the  life  of  Abraham 
Lincoln,  and  the  story  of  it  should  be  of  the  highest  in- 
terest to  every  American  youth. 

We  are  probably  not  sufficiently  removed  from  the 
times  of  Abraham  Lincoln  to  estimate  him  in  his  full 
proportions.  The  greater  part  of  the  literature  that  has 
been  written  concerning  him,  that  is  not  absolutely 
ephemeral,  has  been  wTitten  for  a  people  who  reverenced 
him, and  who  w^ould  brook  no  other  than  a  reverent  hand- 
ling of  the  object  of  their  devotion.  Such  jealousy,  how- 
ever, was  needless,  for  loving  hands  have  written  intel- 
ligently and  judicially  the  story  of  his  life,  and  of  the 
unfolding  of  his  character.  They  have  written  with  the 
ardor  of  personal  friendship  and  almost  in  the  heat  of  the 
exciting  days  when  Lincoln  stood  as  their  cham.pion  and 
contended  for  the  National  Union  to  which  they  were 
devoted. 

These   circumstances    are   not    favorable    to  the  ex- 

5 


6  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

position  of  the  real  Lincoln.  And  yet  more  than  most 
of  the  great  men  of  history,  his  individuality  was  so  strik- 
ing, its  outlines  were  so  well  defined,  that  even  a  poor 
artist  can  trace  them,  and  in  his  maturer  years  his  action 
was  so  studied  and  deliberate—  as  if  he  were  appealing  to 
the  solemn  verdict  of  future  generations — that  it  is  not 
easy  to  go  far  astray  in  our  judgments  concerning  him. 
Take  him  for  all  in  all,  he  furnishes  us  a  striking  exam- 
ple taken  from  our  own  times,  of  a  typical  American  who 
was  born  in  poverty  and  reared  amid  unlikely  surround- 
ings and  influences,  but  who  made  the  most  of  his  slen- 
der opportunities  for  intellectual  culture,  kept  himself 
pure  amid  much  that  was  degrading,  and  step  by  step, 
attained  to  nobleness  of  character,  to  intellectual  strength, 
to  honor  and  station  among  those  who  knew  him  best 
and  finally,  to  the  highest  eminence  of  position  and  honor 
that  an  American  can  reach. 

In  his  career  he  epitomizes  a  half  century  of  the  most 
interesting  and  critical  conditions  of  our  national  life. 
And  the  progress  of  events  that  culminated  in  the  Civil 
War,  its  conduct,  and  the  w^ork  of  reconstruction  that 
followed  it,  can  nowhere  be  studied  as  intelligently  as  in 
the  story  of  his  outlook  on  the  political  life  of  the  nation, 
of  his  political  affiliations,  and  his  active  participation  in 
the  settlement  of  the  great  questions  that  involved  the 
existence  and  prosperity  of  the  nation. 

We  shall  turn  first  to  his  ancestry  and  early  environ- 
ment. He  was  born  February  I2th  in  the  year  1809,  in 
a  miserable  cabin  on  the  farm  of  Thomas  Lincoln,  or 
*'Linkhorn,'^  as  he  was  sometimes  called,three  miles  from 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  7 

Hodgensville  in  the  present  county  of  LaRue  in  the  state 
of  Kentucky.  Of  his  ancestry  on  the  Lincohi  side,  little 
is  known  save  that  they  were  among  the  early  settlers  of 
Virginia  and  were  of  English  descent,  and  probably  were 
Quakers.  The  mother  of  Abraham  I^incoln  was  Nancy 
Hanks,  whose  ancestors  came  from  England  to  Virginia 
and  moved  on  to  Kentucky  with  the  Lincolns,  settling 
near  them  in  Mercer  County. 

It  was  while  learning  his  trade  as  a  carpenter  in  the 
shop  of  Joseph  Hanks,  the  uncle  of  Nancy  Hanks,  that 
Thomas  Lincoln  met  and  courted  the  mother  of  the  crreat 

o 

president.  He  was  of  medium  stature,  standing  five 
feet-ten  in  his  shoes.  His  complexion  was  swarthy,  liis 
hair  dark,  his  eyes  gray,  his  face  full  and  round,  his  nose 
prominent;  he  was  strong  and  sinewy;  he  was  peace  lov- 
ing but  brave  enough  to  fight  when  occasion  demanded, 
as  it  often  did  in  those  rough  days  in  the  border  state  of 
Kentucky;  he  was  of  roving  disposition,  a  good  story  tel- 
ler, and  full  of  anecdote  picked  up  in  his  wanderings. 
In  politics  he  was  a  Jackson  Democrat,  and  in  religion 
"everything  by  turns  and  nothing  long."  A  botch  car- 
penter by  trade,  he  soon  tired  of  that  and  turned  farmer, 
though  he  did  not  entirely  abandon  rough  carpentry,  and 
as  a  farmer  he  showed  his  inconstancy  b)^  frequent  mi- 
grations from  one  location  to  another. 

Nancy  Hanks  is  described  as  a  slender,  symmetrical, 
woman  of  medium  height,  with  dark  hair,  regular  feat- 
ures, and  sparkling  hazel  eyes.  Of  her  it  is  related,  as  an 
unusual  circumstance  in  the  illiteracy  of  the  time,  that 
she  possessed  the  rare  accomplishments  of  reading  and 


8  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

writing-,  and  taught  her  husband  to  write  his  name.  She 
was  born  to  drudgery  and  her  natural  beauty  soon  gave 
place  to  the  faded  and  woe- begone  expression  that  pov- 
erty and  struggle  and  uncertainty  are  wont  to  write  on 
the  faces  and  forms  of  the  women  of  the  frontier.  The 
first  home  of  her  married  life  was  a  wretched  hovel  in 
one  of  the  alleys  of  Elizabethtown,  Kentucky,  where  her 
first  child  was  born,  and  a  little  later  she  occupied  with 
her  husband  the  miserable  cabin  on  Nolin  Creek  where, 
on  account  of  his  thriftlessness,  he  barely  met  the  neces- 
sities of  the  little  household. 

It  was  here  that  Abrahamx  Lincoln  was  born.  The 
manger  at  Bethlehem  was  not  a  more  unlikely  birth- 
place. And  here  he  remained  until  he  was  four  years 
old,  and  then  the  elder  Lincoln  migrated  to  another  farm 
some  six  miles  from  Hodgensville,  on  Knob  Creek, whose 
clear  waters  flowed  at  length  into  the  Ohio,  twenty-four 
miles  below  Louisville.  This  new  m.ove  that  might  have 
proved  advantageous — for  the  banks"  of  the  creek  and  the 
valleys  of  the  region  ga\'e  great  promise  of  fertility — 
was  like  Thomas  Lincoln's  other  experiences;  only  six 
acres  out  of  the  two  hundred  and  thirty-eight  that  made 
up  the  farm,  were  worked,  and  no  permanent  title  to  the 
land  was  acquired  by  him.  After  four  years  a  new  mi- 
gration began,  this  time  to  Indiana. 

During  these  years  of  Kentucky  life  young  Lincoln's 
development  went  on  with  none  of  the  modern  aids.  A 
few  days  of  schooling  each  sumiUier  at  the  hands  of 
Zachariah  Riney  and  Caleb  Hazel  were  all  the  opportu- 
nities   that  Kentucky    offered    him.      During    the  re- 


,li*^£issiK...i.. 


_Ht.- 


The  early  home  of  Lincoln  in  Elizabethtown,  Ky. 
From  Raymond's  "Life  of  Lincoln." 


10  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

mainder  of  his  time  he  vegetated.  In  the  fall  of 
1816,  the  spirit  of  change  came  over  Thomas  Lin- 
coln once  more.  He  had  had  some  experience  as  a 
flat-boatman  on  two  trips  to  New  Orleans,  and  thought 
to  move  in  that  way.  He  used  his  skill  in  car- 
pentry for  the  construction  of  a  flat-boat,  converted 
his  personal  property  into  four  hundred  gallons  of 
w^hiskey,  and  started  with  his  tools  and  his  whiskey,  alone. 
He  was  ship-wrecked  on  the  raging  Ohio  but  righted  his 
boat,  rescued  most  of  his  whiskey  and  a  few  of  his  tools, 
and  floated  down  to  Thompson's  Ferry  two  and  a  half 
miles  west  of  Troy,  in  Ferry  County,  Indiana.  Sixteen 
miles  distant  from  the  river,  he  found  a  place  that  he  re- 
garded a  promising  location.  Thence  he  started  back 
on  foot  for  his  wife  and  children,  and  on  borrowed  horses 
he  brought  the  few  remaining  effects  of  his  family,  their 
clothing  and  bedding  and  the  small  stock  of  kitchen 
utensils. 

The  Lincoln  farm  was  situated  between  the  forks  of 
the  Big  and  the  Little  Pigeon  Creeks  a  mile  and  a  half 
east  of  the  little  village  of  Gentryville,  in  a  small  well- 
wooded  region,  full  of  game.  There  he  built  a  log  cabin 
closed  on  three  sides  and  open  on  the  fourth.  The 
house  was  about  fourteen  feet  square  and  floorless.  Into 
this  comfortless  cabin,  with  few  of  the  ordinary  arrange- 
ments for  warmth  or  covering,  exposed  to  all  the  winds 
that  blow,  for  it  was  on  a  hillock  and  built  of  poles,  he 
conducted  his  little  family.  The  place  w^as  a  solitude. 
No  road  approached  it  save  the  trail  that  Lincoln  had 
blazed  through  the  woods.     For  a  whole  year  they  en- 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


II 


dured  the  discomforts  of  this  home  in  the  woods,  while 
some  ground  was  being  cleared  and  a  little  crop  planted. 
Some  relatives  followed  them  from  Kentucky  the  next 
year,  and  among 
them,  Dennis 
Hanks,  the  young 
cousin  of  Abraham 
Lincoln. 

In  1817  a  new 
log  house  was 
reared  by  Thom- 
as Ivincoln  of  un- 
hew^ed  timbers  and 
without  floor,  door 
or  windows.  Sev- 
en or  eight  older 
settlers  had  pre- 
ceded them  to  this 
region  and  soon 
a  tide  of  emigra- 
tion     poured       in,  Dennis  Hanks. 

sparsely  peopling  the  waste  places  of  the  new  state  of 
Indiana.  The  nearest  hand-mill  to  Thomas  Lincoln  was 
ten  miles  away,  whither  Abraham  carried  the  grist.  Of 
schooling  there  was  little  more  than  in  Kentucky,  and 
that  of  a  very  simple  kind.  For  two  years  Thomas  Lin- 
coln went  the  even  tenor  of  his  way,  raising  a  little  corn, 
shooting  a  little  game,  failing  to  provide  systematically 
or  wath  any  solicitude  for  the  needs  of  his  family.  No 
furniture  was  in  the  house  save  the  roughest — three-legged 


12  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

stools  for  chairs,  a  log  with  legs  on  it  for  a  table,  bed- 
steads made  of  poles  fastened  at  one  end  to  the  wall  and 
resting  on  forked  sticks,  driven  into  the  earthen  floor  at 
the  other  end.  On  these,  boards  w^ere  laid,  while  leaves 
and  old  clothing  served  for  the  bed.  They  ate  from  a 
few  pew^ter  dishes,  without  knives  or  forks.  A  dutch  oven 
and  a  skillet,  were  the  sole  utensils  of  their  cabin.  A 
bed-room  in  the  loft,  to  w^hich  he  climbed  on  pins  driven 
in  the  wall,  was  the  nightly  roost  of  the  future  president. 

Now  the  milk  sickness  appeared,  and  Thomas  Lin- 
coln's carpentry  was  employed  in  building  rough  cofiins 
for  the  dying  settlers.  He  cut  out  the  timber  from  logs 
with  his  W'hip-saw  and  made  rough  boxes  for  a  number 
of  his  friends.  Nancy  Lincoln  was  stricken.  There  was 
not  a  physician  w^itliin  thirty  miles,  and  no  money  to  pay 
him  should  he  come.  Without  a  hand  to  relieve  her,  the 
poor  jaded  woman,  the  mother  of  the  great  president, 
dropped  away  on  the  5th  of  October,  18 18,  and  was 
buried  without  ceremony  in  an  unmarked  grave.  She 
had  given  birth  to  a  man-child  on  whom  time  should  set 
the  seal  of  greatness.  His  sole  apparent  inheritance  from 
her,  how^ever,  seems  to  have  been  the  tinge  of  melancholy 
that  often  clouded  his  life.  In  his  observations-  upon 
the  making  of  his  character  he  has  little  or  nothing  to 
say  of  his  own  mother.  The  early  years  of  his  life  were 
years  of  neglect.  He  grew  up  in  deprivation,  ill-fed,  ill- 
clothed,  to  develop  alone  in  the  sunshine  and  in  the 
forest  the  nature  that  was  in  him. 

But  a  new  influence  was  soon  imported  into  the  Lin- 
coln  home.       After  thirteen    months    of    widow^hood, 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  I3 

Thomas  Lincoln  made  a  journey  to  Kentucky,  and 
brought  home  with  him  a  new  wife,  whom  he  had  known 
and  loved  many  years  before  as  Sally  Bush,  a  woman  of 
"great  energy  and  good  sense,  very  neat  and  tidy  in  her 
person  and  manners,  and  who  knew  how  to  manage 
children."  She  brought  with  her  from  her  Kentucky 
home  a  store  of  luxuries  and  comforts  that  the  Indiana 
cabin  had  never  known.  It  took  a  four-horse  team  to 
move  her  effects,  and  at  once  she  demanded  that  the 
floorless,  windowless  and  doorless  cabin  should  be  made 
habitable.  Warm  beds  were  for  the  first  time  provided 
for  the  children.  She  took  off  their  rags  and  clothed 
them  from  her  own  stores;  she  washed  them  and  treated 
them  with  motherly  tenderness,  and  to  use  her  own  lan- 
guage, she  made  them  look  a  little  more  human. 

Her  heart  went  out  at  once  to  young  Abe  and  all  was 
changed  for  him.  She  discovered  possibilities  in  him 
and  set  about  his  training,  gratified,  loved  and  directed 
him,  and  won  his  heart.  She  was  the  mother  whom  he 
describes  as  his"saintly  mother,hisangelofa  mother  who 
first  made  him  feel  like  a  human  being" — and  took  him 
out  of  the  rut  of  degradation  and  neglect  and  shiftless- 
ness  that,  if  long  continued,  might  have  controlled  his 
destiny.  She  insisted  that  he  should  be  sent  to  school 
as  soon  as  there  was  a  school  to  go  to;  he  had  already  ac- 
quired a  little  reading  and  writing  and  was  quick  in  the 
acquisition  of  knowledge. 

In  the  rude  school  house  at  Little  Pigeon  Creek  where 
Hazel  Dorsey  presided,  Abraham  attended  in  the  winter 
of   1 819,   and   quickly    became  the  best  speller  in  the 


14  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

school.  In  the  winter  of  1822  and  '23  he  attended  An- 
drew Crawford's  school  in  the  same  place,  where  manners 
as  well  as  spelling,  were  a  part  of  the  curriculum.  He 
was  now  a  lanky  lad  of  fifteen,  and  rapidly  rising  to  his 
full  stature  of  six  feet-four.  He  was  not  a  beauty  with 
his  big  feet  and  hands,  his  shrivelled  and  yellow  skin, 
and  his  costume  of  low  shoes,  and  buckskin  breeches  too 
short  by  several  inches, his  linsey-woolsey  shirt  and  coon- 
skin  cap;  but  he  was  good-humored  and  gallant,  popu- 
lar with  the  boys  and  girls,  and  a  leader. 

His  last  schooling  was  in  1826,  at  a  school  four  and  a 
half  miles  from  his  home,  kept  by  Mr.  Swaney.  By  this 
time  he  had  acquired  all  the  knowledge  that  the  poor 
masters  of  that  frontier  region  could  impart,  henceforth  he 
must  supervise  his  own  education,  as  the  family  were  too 
poor  to  spare  him  if  opportunities  for  learning  had  pre- 
sented themselves.  He  must  work  now  in  the  shop  or 
on  the  farm,  or  as  a  hired  boy  among  the  neighbors. 
One  of  his  employers  tells  us  that  he  used  to  get  very 
angry  with  him,  he  was  always  reading  or  thinking 
when  he  got  a  chance,  and  would  talk  and  crack  jokes 
half  the  time.  After  the  days  work  was  over,  by  the 
light  of  the  fire,  he  would  sit  and  cipher  on  the  wooden 
fire  shovel.  Any  book  that  fell  in  his  way  was  eagerly 
devoured,  and  its  striking  passages  were  written  down 
and  preserved.  "Aesops  Fables"  improved  his  native 
art  of  pungent  story  telling,  "Robinson  Crusoe,"  Bun- 
yan's  "Pilgrim's  Progress"  and  the  Bible  were  eagerly 
read  by  him,  as  were  Weem's  "Washington"  and  a  his- 
tory of  the  United  States.     These  few  books  enriched 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  15 

his  mind  and  laid  the  basis  of  his  straight-forward,  lucid 
literary  style.  The  Revised  Statutes  of  Indiana,  that 
could  not  be  loaned  from  the  office  of  the  constable,  drew 
him  thither  like  a  magnet,  and  became  the  basis  of  his 
legal  lore. 

At  home,  he  was  the  soul  of  kindness,  instantly  ready 
for  kindly  service,  full  of  his  jokes  and  stories.  His 
father  and  his  cousin  were  storytellers  and  it  was  often  a 
matter  of  friendly  rivalry  which  could  out-do  the  other. 
That  talent,  thus  cultivated,  was  one  of  the  sources  of  his 
mastery  of  men.  He  had  a  powerful  memory  and  would 
often  repeat  to  his  comrades  long  passages  from  the  books 
he  had  read,  or  regale  them  with  parts  of  the  Sunday 
sermon  with  such  perfect  mimicry  that  the  tones  and 
gestures  of  the  rude  preachers  of  that  day  were  vividly 
reproduced.  Even  in  the  harvest  field,  he  was  wont  to 
take  the  stump  and  sadly  interfere  with  the  labor  of  the 
day  by  discoursing  to  the  harvest  hands,  and  more  than 
once  his  father  had  to  break  up  this  diversion  with  se- 
verity. He  had  the  instincts  of  the  politician  and  the 
orator.  He  could  please  and  divert  men,  and  these  rude 
early  opportunities  developed  in  him  the  consciousness 
of  his  power  that  should  one  day  become  so  masterful. 

His  fondness  for  the  society  of  his  fellows  was  very 
marked.  He  could  withdraw  himself  utterly  from  men 
over  a  book,  but  his  tastes  were  strong  to  be  among  men. 
All  the  popular  gatherings  where  men  assembled  were 
eagerly  sought  out  by  him;  corn  shuckings,  log  rollings, 
shooting  matches,  weddings,  had  a  strong  fascination  for 
him.     He  enjoyed  the  sport  and  was  one  of  the  foremost 


i6  ABRAHAM  LINXOLX. 

to  make  it.  In  all  rustic  sports  he  was  at  home.  His 
strength  was  phenomenal,  and  as  a  wTestler  he  seldom 
found  his  match. 

From  the  time  he  left  Crawford's  school  he  was  using 
all  his  faculties  daily  and  learning  all  that  the  rude  w^orld 
about  him  had  to  teach  him.  Dennis  Hanks  tells  us  of 
the  educational  processes  of  the  time,  "We  learned  by 
sight,  scent  and  hearing.  We  heard  all  that  was  said, 
and  talked  over  and  over  the  questions  heard,  w^ore  them 
slick,  greasy  and  threadbare,  went  to  political  and  other 
speeches  and  gatherings  as  you  do  now.  We  would 
hear  all  sides  and  opinions,  talk  them  over,  discuss  them, 
agreeing  or  disagreeing.  He  preached,  made  speeches, 
read  for  us,  explained  to  us,  etc.  He  attended  trials,  w^ent 
to  court  always,  read  the  Revised  Statutes  of  Indiana, 
dated  1824,  heard  law  speeches  and  listened  to  law  trials. 
He  was  always  reading,  scribbling,  writing  poetry,  and 
the  like.  To  Gentry ville,  about  one  mile  west  of  Thomas 
Lincoln's  farm,  Lincoln  w^ould  go  and  tell  his  jokes  and 
stories,  and  was  so  odd,  original,  humorous  and  witty, 
that  all  the  people  in  town  would  gather  round  him  and 
he  would  keep  them  there  till  mid-night.  He  was  a  good 
talker,  a  good  reader,  and  a  kind  of  news-boy.." 

Thus  he  absorbed  all  the  intellectual  life  that  w^as 
astir,  and  used  his  powers  as  he  had  occasion,  observing 
public  business,  watching  the  methods  of  the  attorneys 
at  the  bar  and  kindling  with  their  eloquence.  Once  the 
awkw^ard  boy  attempted  to  compliment  an  attorney  for 
his  great  effort,  and  years  afterAvard  he  met  him  and  re- 
called the  circumstance,  telling  him  that  up  to  that  time 


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i8  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

it  was  the  best  speech  he  had  ever  heard,  and  of  his  feel- 
ing that  if  ever  he  could  make  such  a  speech  as  that  his 
soul  would  be  satisfied.  High  aspiration  was  evidently 
stirring  in  him  then,  and  more  than  once,  when  twitted 
with  his  fooling,  as  his  story  telling  and  pranks  were 
called,  and  asked  what  would  ever  become  of  him,  he  was 
wont  to  answer  that  he  was  going  to  be  President  of  the 
United  States.  In  the  rude  circles  in  which  he  moved, 
his  power  of  instructing,  entertaining  and  leading  was 
recognized.  It  was  a  prophecy  to  him  of  leadership  in 
a  larger  sphere. 

In  1828, he  made  his  first  trip  to  New  Orleans  as  a  flat- 
boatman  at  eight  dollars  a  month.  The  trip  was  full  of 
adventure,  and  attended  with  some  danger,  but  it  was  a 
profitable  one  for  his  employer,  and  one  of  enlargement 
of  mind  for  the  employed.  From  that  time  till  1830, 
when  he  became  of  age,  he  worked  among  the  neighbors 
or  for  his  father.  And  then  it  was  determined  to  emi- 
grate to  Illinois.  There,  at  a  point  ten  miles  west  of  De- 
catur, the  Lincolns  settled,  and  Abraham's  last  filial  act 
before  his  majority  was  to  split  rails  for  the  fencing  of 
the  ploughed  land  of  the  new  homestead.  Then  he  was 
free  and  the  home  ties  were  sundered,  though  his.  love 
for  his  step-mother  was  often  manifested  in  later  years  by 
frequent  gifts  of  money  and  frequent  visits. 

He  took  odd  jobs  in  the  country  round  and  the  pay 
was  all  his  own.  In  1831,  he  went  to  New  Orleans  on  a 
flat-boat  which  he  helped  to  build.  The  boat  was 
launched  on  the  Sangamon,  stranded  on  a  dam,  and  re- 
lieved by  Lincoln's  ingenuity,  and  started  again  on  a  sue- 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  ig 

cessfiil  voyage,  laden  with  pork,  hogs  and  corn.  It  was 
on  this  trip  that  his  reflective  mind  evolved  an  invention 
for  helping  flat-boats  over  snags  and  shoals.  The  inven- 
tion was  patented,  but  like  many  another  patent,  failed 
to  enrich  the  owner.  It  was  on  this  trip  that  Lincoln 
observed  for  the  first  time  some  of  the  abominations  of 
the  slave  trade  in  the  City  of  New  Orleans.  It  depressed 
him  and  drew  from  him  the  emphatic,  almost  prophetic 
statement,  '  'If  I  ever  get  a  chance  to  hit  slavery,  I'll  hit 
it  hard." 

He  found  his  way  back  to  New  Salem  where  he  kept 
store  for  the  same  employer  that  sent  him  to  New  Orleans. 
There  he  won  his  way  to  consideration  by  his  genial  ways, 
his  gift  of  story  telling,  and  his  strength  and  skill  in 
wrestling.  There,  too,  he  found  an  English  grammar 
and  mastered  it  by  the  light  of  pine  shavings,in  the  long 
evening  hours. 

In  1832,  the  Black  Hawk  War  broke  out.  Lincoln  en- 
listed, and  though  without  military  experience,  his  pop- 
ularity won  him  the  captaincy  of  his  company  by  popu- 
lar election.  His  career  as  an  officer  was  not  a  brilliant 
one.  His  command  was  an  unsoldierly  company  of 
American  citizens  who  respected  their  captain,  but  who 
were  unwilling  to  subject  themselves  to  very  strict  disci- 
pline. They  did  no  fighting  and  were  discharged  from 
service  after  a  brief  campaign,  and  Lincoln  re-enlisted  as 
a  private  in  the  Independent  Spy  Company.  He  was 
wont  afterwards  to  excite  much  amusement  by  his  stories 
of  this  bloodless  war.  Yet  it  was  a  school  to  him  that 
revealed  his  relations  to  his  country  and  helped  to  fit  him 


20 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


for  the  great  duties  of  Commander  in-Chief  in  the  War 
of  the  Rebellion. 

Returning  to  New  Salem  after  the   war,   his  friends 
urged  him,  in  viev>^  of  his  popularity  in  the  recent  war. 


Lincoln's  Pioneer  House  on  the  Sangamon  River. 
Built  and  Occupied  by  Himself. 

to  become  a  candidate  for  the  State  Legislature.  His  ap- 
pearance in  debate,  and  the  favorable  impression  he  made, 
settled  the  question  of  his  candidacy  for  his  friends.  He 
felt  that  an  election  was  an  impossibility  for  him  at  that 
time,  but  he  undertook  the  canvass.  It  was  the  custom 
then  for  every  candidate  to  stand  on  his  own  merits  with- 
out the  aid  of  a  nominating  convention.     ]\Ir.  Lincoln  at 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  21 

this  time  was  nominally  a  Jackson  Democrat,  though 
some  of  his  statements  in  his  first  campaign  for  office  re- 
sembled very  closely  Whig  utterances,  and  he  will  be 
found  speedily  to  be  on  that  side. 

He  issued  a  manifesto  to  the  people  of  Sangamon 
County  on  the  question  of  local  improvements,  propos- 
ing the  improvement  of  the  Sangamon  River.  He  an- 
nounced himself  in  favor  of  usury  laws  which  would  limit 
the  rate  of  interest  to  be  paid  in  the  state.  He  was  in  fa- 
vor of  education, and  of  the  enactment  of  sundry  laws  that 
would  benefit  the  farming  community  in  which  he  lived. 
His  manifesto  was  that  of  a  crude  and  immature  states- 
man— or  better,  perhaps,  of  a  young  politician,  seeking 
to  adjust  himself  to  the  popular  opinions  about  him  and 
to  reach  public  office  thereby.  He  w^as  defeated  at  the 
election,  but  he  had  the  satisfaction  of  knowing,  that  the 
people  who  knew  him  best  gave  him  their  votes.  The 
canvass,  however,  gave  him  a  wider  acquaintance  with 
the  people  of  the  district  and  established  him  in  their 
eyes  as  a  young  man  of  considerable  promise. 

In  default  of  a  political  opening,  the  question  of  his 
future  career  pressed  upon  him.  He  could  earn  a  poor 
livelihood  with  his  brawny  arms,  but  to  this  he  was  in- 
disposed, feeling,  as  he  did,  that  there  was  a  larger  des- 
tiny before  him  than  of  mere  manual  labor.  He  tried 
clerking  in  a  store,  then  merchandising  on  credit,  which 
last  experience  ended  disastrously  and  left  him  a  burden 
of  debt.  Then  he  began  the  study  of  law,  with  borrowed 
books.  He  put  his  new  knowledge  into  practice  by  writ- 
ing deeds,  contracts,  notes  and  other  legal  papers  for  his 


22  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

neighbors,  following  prescribed  forms,  and  conducting 
small  cases  in  justice's  courts  without  remuneration. 
This  was  his  law  school,  self-conducted.  Volumes  on  sci- 
ence were  at  the  same  time  eagerly  devoured  by  him,  and 
the  few  newspapers  on  which  he  could  lay  hands  were 
the  sources  of  his  political  information.  Burns  and 
Shakespeare  were  his  especial  delight. 

To  pay  his  way,  he  won  the  good  opinion  of  the  sur- 
veyor of  Sangamon  County,  who  appointed  him  dep- 
uty, and  gave  him  a  chance  to  acquire  a  knowledge  of 
surveying,  in  which  he  became  an  expert.  He  was  called 
hither  and  yon  about  the  county  as  a  surveyor,  and  was 
made  arbiter  in  disputes  on  lines  and  corners.  Best  of 
all,  he  earned  a  good  living  and  made  many  friends  for 
the  future. 

From  1833  to  1836,  he  was  postmaster  of  New  Salem, 
as  a  Jackson  appointee  on  the  score  of  right  opinions. 
The  emoluments  of  the  position  were  not  burdensome. 
He  kept  his  office  in  his  hat. 

In  1834,  he  was  again  a  candidate  for  the  Legislature. 
This  time  he  leaned  to  the  Whig  party.  It  was  during 
this  year  that  his  personal  effects,  including  his  survey- 
ing instruments,  were  sold  under  the  hammer  by -the 
sheriff  to  satisfy  a  judgment  against  him  on  account  of 
his  unsuccessful  career  as  a  merchant.  But  warm  per- 
sonal friendship  intervened  to  save  his  property  and  keep 
him  in  courage  for  the  work  of  his  life. 

The  campaign  of  1834  was  personally  conducted,  as 
was  that  of  1832.  In  the  harvest  field,  at  the  grocery  or 
on  the  highway,  wherever  he  could  find  men  to  listen, 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  23 

he  interested  them  in  his  cause  and  his  personality, 
chiefly  the  latten  Where  he  was  known  he  was  wel- 
comed, and  where  he  found  it  necessary  to  make  himself 
known,  his  auditors  soon  made  the  discovery  that  he 
belonged  to  the  singed  cat  variety.  With  his  calico 
shirt,  short  trousers,  rough  brogans,  and  straw  hat  with- 
out a  band,  he  raised  a  laugh  at  his  appearance  that  was 
soon  turned  to  applause  at  his  knowledge  and  his  skill 
in  presenting  it.  He  headed  the  poll  on  election  day, 
and  appreciating  the  fact  that  a  new  outfit  was  necessary 
to  comport  with  his  dignity  as  a  legislator,  he  borrowed 
two  hundred  dollars  from  Coleman  Smoot,  an  admirer 
who  had  never  seen  him,  and  got  himself  up  in  the  best 
clothes  he  had  ever  worn.  The  loan  was  scrupulously 
repaid.  The  time  up  to  the  session  of  the  Legislature 
was  spent  in  preparation  for  his  new  responsibilities,  in 
readinof  and  writirio-. 

He  had  enough  of  his  two  hundred  dollars  remaining 
to  pay  his  passage  on  the  stage  coach  to  the  scene  of  the 
Legislature  at  Vandalia.  That  body  was  overwhelming- 
ly Democratic  in  its  political  complexion,  and  set  the 
pace  for  Illinois  of  that  class  of  legislation  so  common  in 
new  countries:  the  creation  of  public  debt  and  the 
starting  of  great  and  ill-considered  public  improvements, 
and  the  licensing  of  banks  with  great  privileges,  and 
practically  no  guarantees,  a  class  of  legislation  that 
brought  on  the  financial  collapse  of  1837.  The  legisla- 
ture represented  the  overwhelming  majority  of  the  people 
and  accomplished  their  behests.  All  were  crazed  with 
the  spirit  of  speculation,  all  were  similarly  responsible, 


u 


ABRAHAM  LINXOLN. 


and  all  suffered  in  the  same  general  consequences.  Mr. 
Lincoln  swam  with  the  stream,  voted  for  all  the  wild-cat 
measures  which,  according  to  the  best  wisdom  of  the 
time,  were  essential  to  the   prosperity  of  the  state.     He 

was  a  silent 
member,  how- 
ever, at  this  ses- 
sion of  the  Leg- 
islature, though 
he  served  on 
the  committee 
on  Public  Ac- 
counts and  Ex- 
penditures. 

It  was  at  this 
session  of  the 
legislature  that 
he  met  Stephen 
A.  Douglas, with 
whose  later  ca- 
reer his  own 
w^as  destined  to 
be  so  closely  in- 
terwoven, and 
whom  at  his  first  meeting  he  characterized  as  the  "least 
man  he  ever  saw."  In  time  he  readily  accorded  him  the 
title  of  "The  Little  Giant,"  with  whose  powers  he,  only, 
seemed  able  to  cope.  This  legislature  w^as  beset,  as  lat- 
er legislatures  of  Illinois  have  been,  by  a  corrupt  and 
persistent   body  of   so-called   log   rollers,   who  w^ere  on 


Stephen  A.  Douglas. 
Born  1813.     Died  1861 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  25 

hand  to  push  their  schemes  by  persuasion  and  corrupt- 
ion. But  no  taint  attached  to  young  Lincoln,  who,  if 
he  were  carried  away  like  the  other  legislators  of  the 
time,  by  schemes  of  artificial  prosperity,  was  beyond  the 
reach  of  bribery. 

In  1836,  he  was  again  a  candidate  for  the  legislature, 
self-nominated,  for  this  was  before  the  age  of  caucuses 
and  conventions.  In  the  Journal  of  New  Salem  he  an- 
nounces his  platform.  He  favors  extending  to  all  whites 
w^ho  pay  taxes  or  bear  arms  (not  excluding  women)  the 
right  of  suffrage.  If  elected,  he  should  consider  the 
whole  people  of  the  district  as  his  constituents,  regard- 
less of  the  manner  of  their  voting,  and  while  acting  as 
their  representative  he  would  be  governed  by  their  will 
on  all  subjects  on  which  they  should  make  known  their 
will,  and  on  other  subjects  lie  would  follow  his  own 
judgment  as  to  what  would  advance  their  interests.  He 
further  announced  tliat  lie  was  in  favor  of  distributinsf 
the  proceeds  of  the  sales  of  public  lands  to  the  several 
states,  to  enable  each  state  in  common  with  others,  to 
dig  canals  and  construct  railroads  without  borrowing 
money  and  paying  the  interest  on  it.  On  the  question 
of  national  politics,  he  announced  his  adhesion  to  the 
standard  bearer  of  the  Whigs. 

For  two  months  the  campaign  was  conducted  in  the 
rough  and  ready  manner  peculiar  to  those  times.  Hot 
words  were  bandied,  personalities  were  indulged  in,  pis- 
tols were  frequently  drawn,  and  the  personal  prowess  of 
the  candidate  was  one  of  his  strong  claims  to  the  respect 
of  a  rough  constituency.     At  no  point  was  Lincoln  lack- 


26  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

ing  in  his  knowledge  of  his  audiences.  They  had  had 
demonstrations  of  his  physical  prowess.  Popular  re- 
port had  credited  him  with  fearlessness,  and  his  plain 
strong  reasoning,  his  humor  and  skillful  repartee  did 
the  rest. 

It  was  the  custom  for  political  antagonists  to  address 
the  same  audiences,  or  at  least  for  both  sides  to  get  a 
hearing  at  the  same  time  and  place.  It  was  during  this 
campaign  that  Geo.  Forquer,  who  had  been  a  Whig  in 
the  legislature  of  1834,  and  had  changed  his  views  on 
being  appointed  registrar  of  the  Land  Ofhce,  presumed 
to  call  Lincoln  to  account.  Forquer  had  aroused  much 
attention  as  a  political  turn-coat,  and  likew^ise  by  his 
sudden  prosperity  in  being  able  to  build  the  finest  house 
in  Springfield,  on  which  he  set  up  the  only  lightning 
rod  of  which  the  region  could  boast.  He  listened  to 
Lincoln's  speech  in  defense  of  the  principles  that  he  had 
recently  repudiated,  and  when  he  had  finished  he  arose 
to  answer,  with  a  fine  assumption  of  superiority,  saying 
that  the  yoimg  man  w^ould  have  to  be  taken  down,  and 
he  was  sorry  that  the  task  devolved  upon  him.  He  there- 
upon proceeded  to  take  him  down  in  a  strong  Democratic 
speech.  When  he  had  concluded  ]\Ir.  Lincoln  replied  to 
his  arguments,  and  then  alluded  to  Mr.  Forquer's  re- 
mark that  the  young  man  must  be  taken  down.  Turn- 
ing to  his  audience,  he  said: 

"It  is  for  you  to  say  whether  I  am  down  or  up.  The 
gentleman  has  alluded  to  my  being  a  young  man.  I  am 
older  in  years  than  I  am  in  the  tricks  and  trades  of  poli- 
ticians.    I  desire  to  live  and  I  desire  place  and  distinct- 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  27 

ion  as  a  politician,  bnt  I  would  rather  die  now  than,  like 
this  gentleman,  live  to  see  the  day  that  I  would  have  to 
erect  a  lightning  rod  to  protect  a  guilty  conscience  from 
an  offended  God." 

Another  Democratic  orator  met  his  Waterloo  in  an  en- 
gagement with  Lincoln  in  the  same  campaign.  Dick 
Taylor  was  severely  Democratic  in  theory,  denouncing 
the  Whig  aristocracy  and  making  much  of  his  sympathy 
with  the  hard-handed  toiling  masses,  but  in  practice  he 
adorned  himself  with  splendid  apparel,  and  shone  con- 
spicuously with  ruffled  shirt,  silk  vest,  and  an  impressive 
watch  chain.  On  one  occasion  when  Taylor  was  parad- 
ing his  democracy  and  denouncing  the  aristocratic  Whigs, 
Lincoln  edged  up  to  the  platform,  and  gave  a  jerk  to 
Taylor's  vest,  that  exposed  his  ruflled  shirt,  his  gold 
watch  and  chain  and  pendant  jewelry.  It  was  a  move- 
ment that  took  all  the  wind  out  of  Taylor's  sails  and 
hardly  needed  the  speech  which  Mr.  Lamon  credits  to 
this  occasion,  which  has  so  much  of  personal  interest  in 
it,  that  we  repeat  it. 

"While  Taylor  was  making  his  charges  against  the 
Whigs  over  the  country,  riding  in  fine  carriages,  wearing 
ruffled  shirts,  kid  gloves,  massive  gold  watch  chain  with 
large  gold  seals,  and  flourishing  a  heavy  gold-headed 
cane,  I  was  a  poor  boy  hired  on  a  flat-boat  at  eight  dol- 
lars a  month  and  had  only  one  pair  of  breeches  to  my 
back,  and  they  were  buckskin,  and  if  you  know  the  na- 
ture of  buckskin,  when  wet  and  dried  by  the  sun,  they 
will  shrink,  and  mine  kept  shrinking  until  they  left  sev- 
eral inches  of  my  legs  bare  between  the  top  of  my  socks 


28  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

and  the  lower  part  of  my  breeches,  and  whilst  I  was 
growing  taller,  they  were  becoming  shorter,  and  so  much 
tighter  that  they  left  a  blue  streak  around  my  legs  that 
can  be  seen  to  this  day.  If  you  call  this  aristocracy  I 
plead  guilty  to  the  charge." 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  elected  by  a  larger  vote  than  any 
other  candidate.  Sangamon  County,  that  had  usually 
gone  Democratic,  went  Whig  by  more  than  four  hundred 
majority.  The  Convention  System  was  now  taking  root 
in  the  west.  Some  of  the  members  of  the  legislature  of 
1836  and  1837,  among  whom  was  Stephen  A.  Douglas, 
were  nominated  by  conventions,  and  hereafter  the  Whigs 
are  compelled  to  fall  into  line.  Elections  are  to  be  con- 
ducted no  more  on  the  self-nominating  plan  and  person- 
ally conducted  canvass.  But  national  issues  and  national 
parties  are  to  control  in  state  affairs.  This  change,  in  the 
minds  of  many,  was  prejudicial  to  the  real  interests  of 
state  affairs  and  certainly  detracted  much  from  the  gro- 
tesqueness  and  individuality  displayed  in  the  self-nominat- 
ing and  self-conducted  campaign.  Men  now  stood  upon 
the  platform  of  a  party,  when  they  accepted  a  nomination. 
Mr.  Lincoln  was  hereafter  to  be  a  party  man,  sometimes 
leading  his  party,  but  all  the  time  loyal  to  it,  and.seeking 
to  force  no  movement  until  the  rank  and  file  of  his  party 
were  abreast  with  him. 

In  national  politics,  at  the  time  of  the  meeting  of  the 
legislature  of  1836-37,  the  country  was  on  the  verge  of  a 
panic.  The  deposits  of  the  United  States  had  been  with- 
drawn from  the  U.  S.  Bank  and  deposited  in  specie-pay- 
ing state  banks.     The  whigs  had  passed  an  act  requiring 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  29 

the  funds  of  the  government  to  be  deposited  with  the 
states,  the  act  to  go  into  effect  Jan.  ist,  1837.  ^^  month 
before  this  date  the  Legislature  of  Illinois  met  at  Van- 
dalia.  Thither  Mr.  Lincoln  went  with  the  intention  of 
being  an  active  member.  He  had  been  instructed  by 
his  constituents  to  vote  for  a  system  of  internal  improve- 
ments. All  parts  of  the  state  were  clamoring  for  them 
and  men  of  all  parties  were  of  one  mind  in  the  matter. 
Lines  of  railroads,  improvement  of  rivers,  the  Illinois 
canal,  and  the  location  of  the  capital  and  the  setting  up 
of  state  banks,  w^ere  the  great  questions  of  the  session. 
Members  of  the  legislature  interested  in  one  locality 
swapped  votes  to  other  localities  for  votes  in  favor  of 
their  project.  Thus  the  log-rolling  went  on  till  nearly 
every  county  in  the  state  shared  in  the  plunder  of  their 
common  treasury  which  was  recruited  by  issues  of  bonds 
that  ought  to  have  paralyzed  any  sane  company  of  leg- 
islators who  could  foresee  the  consequences;  but  they 
were  intoxicated  by  the  spirit  of  speculation. 

Among  the  schemes  in  which  Mr.  Lincoln  chiefly  fig- 
ured was  the  removal  of  the  capital  to  Springfield.  As 
a  member  of  the  Long  Nine  from  Sangamon  County — so 
called  because  their  average  height  was  over  six  feet— he 
so  skillfully  disposed  of  the  votes  of  himself  and  his  col- 
leagues, in  return  for  votes  on  behalf  of  Springfield,  that 
that  city  was  selected  as  the  capital  of  the  state.  Ford 
estimates,  in  his"History  of  Illinois,"  that  it  was  made  to 
cost  the  state  six  millions  of  dollars  for  the  removal  of 
the  capital  from  Vandalia,  and  naming  the  men  who 
participated  in  this  reckless  legislation  and  the  high  po- 


30 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


sitions  to  which  most  of  them  later  attained,  he  declares 
all  of  them  to  be  "spared  monuments  of  popular  wrath, 
evincing  how  safe  it  is  to  a  politician,  but  how  disas- 
trous it  may  be  to  the  country  to  keep  along  with  the 
present  fervor  of  the  people." 

Mr.  Lincoln,  in  his  part  in  the  proceedings  of  the  leg- 
islature, obeyed  the  will 
of  his  constituents  in  lo- 
cating the  capital  at 
Springfield,  and  the  will 
of  the  people  at  large  in 
voting  for  a  general  sys- 
tem of  improvements  at 
the  public  expense,  and 
his  own  judgment  was 
committed  to  the  policy. 
The  fruition  of  their  reck- 
less legislation  was  debt 
and  disaster,all  had  sinned 
and  all  suffered,   and  the 

Library  Chair  used  by  Lincoln  during  his   Twf^nalfiVc  w^e^re^  tirif    tTiciforl 
Occupancy  of  the  White  House.  penal LlCb  \V  tie  IlUL    MbUeu 

Upon  the  legislators  who 
recorded  the  popular  will.  More  creditable  to  Lincoln's 
mind  and  heart  at  this  session  of  the  state  legisla- 
ture was  the  protest  in  which  he  joined,  against  the  act- 
ion of  the  legislature  on  the  subject  of  slavery.  No 
state  was  more  pronounced  than  Illinois  on  the  subject  of 
repressing  the  Abolition  movement.  Illinois  had  de- 
cided once  for  all,  in  1824,  that  it  was  not  disposed 
to  become  a  slave  state,  but  its  people  had  no  sympathy 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  31 

as  yet  with  the  movement  to  interfere  with  slavery  in  the 
South.  The  name  Abolitionist  was  counted  by  the  peo- 
ple of  Illinois  as  hardly  better  than  Horse-thief  and  the 
so-called  Black  Code  of  the  state,  discriminating  against 
negroes  whether  free  or  slave  would  have  been  a  disgrace 
to  Turkey. 

In  1836,  Elijah  P.  Lovejoy,  who  had  been  publishing 
a  moderately  anti-slavery  paper  in  St.  Louis,  moved  to 
Alton,  where  he  found  the  opposition  even  stronger  than 
in  ]\Iissouri,  and  his  press  was  broken  up  and  thrown  into 
the  river.  He  again  set  up  his  press  which  was  to  pub- 
lish a  religious  paper,  and  not  distinctively  an  abolition 
paper,  though  he  claimed  the  right  as  an  American  citi- 
zen to  publish  whatever  he  pleased  on  any  subject,  hold- 
ing himself  answerable  to  the  laws  of  the  country  in  so 
doing.  Only  occasionally,  did  he  discuss  the  s\ibject  of 
slavery,  but  so  repugnant  was  abolition  sentiment  to  the 
people  about  him  that  his  office  was  again  destroyed.  The 
setting  up  of  another  press  was  followed  by  his  murder 
in  defence  of  his  life  and  his  property.  It  was  during 
this  state  of  feeling,  that  culminated  in  Lovejoy's  mur- 
der, that  Lincoln  bravely  wrote  a  protest  against  the  ex- 
treme action  of  the  legislature  on  the  slavery  question, 
and  obtained  the  signature  thereto  of  a  colleague  with  his 
own.  The  resolutions  were  read  and  ordered  to  be  spread 
upon  the  journal  of  the  house.  In  these  resolutions  he 
stated  that  he  believed  that  the  institution  of  slavery  is 
founded  upon  injustice  and  bad  policy,  but  that  the  pro- 
mulgation of  abolition  doctrine  tends  rather  to  increase 
than  to  abate  its  evils.     That  the  Congress  of  the  United 


32  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

States  has  no  power  under  the  Constitution  to  interfere 
with  the  institution  of  slavery  in  the  different  states. 

That  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  has  the  power 
under  the  Constitution  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  District 
of  Columbia,  but  that  the  power  ought  not  to  be  exer- 
cized unless  at  the  request  of  the  people  of  the  district. 
On  this  question  he  saw  clearer  than  his  colleagues  and 
came  nearest  to  the  view  of  wise  statesmanship  that  at 
that  stage  of  the  game  would  make  the  abolition  of  slav- 
ery the  result  of  growth  and  of  the  logic  of  events,  rather 
than  the  result  of  upheaval  and  revolution.  We  do  not 
decrv  the  work  of  the  abolitionists,  nor  would  he  in  his 
later  years.  They  preached  the  iniquity  of  slavery  and 
roused  the  moral  sense  of  the  nation  for  the  final  strup-£rle 
when  the  hand  that  wrote  the  protest  of  1838  might 
write  the  Emancipation  Proclamation  of  1863,  with  a 
possibility  of  its  enforcement.  Between  these  documents 
lies,  perhaps,  the  most  critical  period  of  American  his- 
tory. Lincoln  is  at  length  to  be  the  foremost  figure  of 
that  period,  moving  without  haste,  but  steadily,  to  the 
accomplishment  of  that  supreme  act  which  the  impatient 
Abolitionist  would  have  performed  at  once,  regardless  of 
the  wreck  and  ruin  which  the  attempt  at  immediate  en- 
forcement of  his  policy  would  work. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  again  elected  to  the  legislature  in 
1838,  and  had  reached  such  prominence  that  he  was  the 
candidate  of  his  party  for  speaker.  He  was  not  elected, 
but  remained  on  the  finance  committee  and  took  a  hand 
in  trying  to  extricate  the  state  from  the  almost  hopeless 
bankruptcy  into  wdiich  it   had  been  plunged  by  the  ex- 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  33 

travagant  legislation  of  1836  and  '';^j.  Mr.  Lincoln  was 
elected  again  in  1840,  but  did  not  appear  in  the  session 
of  1 84 1  and  1842  for  reasons  of  a  private  nature.  His 
early  love  for  Ann  Rutledge  had  met  with  disappoint- 
ment and  he  mourned  over  her  grave  with  a  heart  well- 
nigh  broken.  Others  had  excited  his  interest,  but  the 
old  love  was  the  ideal  love  for  him,  and  no  later  affection 
could  compare  with  it,  so  that  although  he  believed  it 
w^as  proper  for  him  to  settle  dowm  in  married  life, his  loy- 
alty to  such  affection  as  he  had  known,  and  his  honorable 
character, made  it  difficult  for  him  to  assume  the  vows  of 
married  life  on  any  other  basis  than  full  and  complete 
devotion  to  the  woman  whom  he  should  call  his  wafe. 

In  1839,  he  was  thrown  much  in  the  society  of  Miss 
Mary  Todd  of  Lexington,  Ky.,  and  he  became  engaged 
to  her.  The  date  of  the  wedding  was  set,  but  he  did  not 
appear.  His  struggle  with  himself  as  to  whether  he  was 
doing  right  well-nigh  unsettled  his  mind,  and  his  friends 
withdrew  him  to  the  quiet  of  Mr.  Speed's  home  in  Ken- 
tucky, till  this  crisis  of  his  history  should  pass.  When  he 
returned,  his  relations  to  Miss  Todd  were  resumed.  She 
w^as  a  clever  writer,  with  some  taste  for  politics,  and  dur- 
ing the  period  of  their  courtship  they  beguiled  them- 
selves with  political  writing  in  the  Ss-ngs^mon  Jour?tal  un- 
der the  nom  de  plume  of  "Rebecca."  The  letters  were 
cleverly  done  in  the  style  of  caricature  and  bore  hard  upon 
I\Ir,  James  Shields,  an  aspiring  Democratic  politician  of 
somew'hat  pompous  and  pretending  manner.  Mr.  Lin- 
coln chivalrously  assumed  the  sole  authorship  of  the  let- 
ters, for  the  protection  of  Miss  Todd,  and  speedily  found 


34  ABRAHAM  LINXOLX. 

himself  embroiled  with  Mr.  Shields,  \Yho  demanded  sat- 
isfaction. Nothing  but  a  duel  or  an  abject  apology 
would  be  accepted,  and  the  mutual  friends  of  Mr.  Lincoln 
and  Mr.  Shields  were  kept  busy  arranging  the  prelimi- 
naries of  a  contest.  ^Ir.  Lincoln  treated  the  matter  with 
indifference,  chose  broadswords  as  the  weapons,  and 
agreed  upon  the  time  and  place  for  meeting,  with  little 
thought  that  the  duel  would  ever  come  off.  He  was  op- 
posed to  dueling,  and  in  choosing  the  weapons,  he  avoided 
pistols  to  avert  a  tragedy,  and  chose  cavalry  broadswords, 
knowing,  as  Arnold  says,  that  if  the  meeting  should  take 
place  nothing  but  a  tragedy  could  have  prevented  its  be- 
ing a  farce.  The  matter  was  adjusted  by  the  publication 
of  a  statement  that  while  Mr.  Lincoln  was  the  author  of 
the  article  signed  "Rebecca,"  he  had  no  intention  of  injur- 
ing the  personal  or  private  character  or  standing  of  ]\Ir. 
Shields  as  a  gentleman  or  man,  and  that  he  did  not 
think  that  the  article  could  produce  such  an  effect,  and 
had  Mr.  Lincoln  anticipated  such  an  effect  he  would 
have  forborne  to  write  it.  Thus  this  serio-comic  affair 
passed  with  little  result  save  to  emphasize  the  vanity 
and  sensitiveness  of  Gen.  Shields,  and  the  cleverness  and 
candor  of  Mr.  Lincoln. 

IMr.  Lincoln  carried  out  his  engagement  with  ]\Iary 
Todd,  and  was  married  to  her  in  November,  1842,  with 
forebodings  that  did  not  promise  well  for  a  happy  married 
life.  Possibly,  as  ^Ir.  Lincoln  feared,  they  were  not  alto- 
gether fitted  for  each  other.  But  never,  by  word  or  deed, 
was  he  disloyal  to  his  marriage  vows,  nor  did  he  ex- 
pose the  wounds  of  his  heart. 


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CD 

P- 


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36  ABRAHAAI  LINCOLN. 

He  was  not  able  at  this  time  to  provide  a  home  of  his 
own,  but  took  up  his  residence  at  the  Globe  Tavern  in 
Springfield  at  an  expense  of  four  dollars  a  week  for  board 
and  lodging  for  himself  and  wife.  Mr.  Lincoln  had  been 
licensed  as  an  attorney  in  1837,  and  had  removed  to 
Springfield  when  that  city  became  the  capital  of  the  state. 
Among  the  men  who  were  his  compeers,  some  of  whom 
afterwards  attained  prominence,  were  Stephen  T.  Logan, 
Stephen  A.  Douglas,  E.  D.  Baker,  John  T.Stuart,  Ninian 
W.  Edwards,  Jesse  B.  Thomas,  and  others  of  local  re- 
nown. 

Mr.  Lincoln's  reputation,  thus  far,  has  been  as  a  poli- 
tician in  Sangamon  Co.  Politics  will  continue  to  have 
the  chief  fascination  for  his  mind,  but  law  will  be  his 
profession  and  his  means  of  livelihood.  He  found  his 
first  law  partner  in  his  friend  John  T.  Stuart,  to  whom  he 
had  previously  been  indebted  for  the  loan  of  books  from 
which  to  learn  the  law.  In  a  little  dingy  office  in  the 
then  unkempt  town  of  Springfield,  the  firm  of  Stuart  &. 
Lincoln  was  installed,  and  Lincoln  began  his  career  of 
divided  interest  between  politics  and  law.  He  was  still 
a  member  of  the  legislature,  and  though  the  affairs  of  the 
state  were  in  sad  need  of  attention,  the  politics  -of  the 
time  began  to  be  confined  to  national  issues,  and  Mr.  Lin- 
coln, like  the  rest,  began  to  occupy  himself  with  a  sur- 
vey of  national  affairs. 

In  January,  1837,  he  delivered  an  address  before  the 
Springfield  Lyceum  on  the  Perpetuation  of  our  Free  In- 
stitutions, which  shows  that  the  young  lawyer  had  now 
attained  to  the  full  consciousness  and  dignity  of  an  Amer- 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  37 

ican  Citizen,  who  prizes  his  birth-right  and  seeks  cahnly 
to  discern  the  perils  of  the  nation,  and  earnestly  to  put 
her  in  a  position  of  security  and  permanence.  This 
speech  marks  him  at  that  early  date,  as  more  than  a  pol- 
itician, grabbing  and  compromising  in  the  state  assembly 
for  local  interests;  rather  as  an  American  citizen  open- 
ing his  eyes  to  the  greatness  of  the  nation,  the  difficulties 
and  the  dangers  that  hazard  the  common  weal. 

As  his  physical  vision  overtopped  that  of  his  fellovv^s, 
so  now  he  seems  to  look  out  on  a  broader  political  hori- 
zon than  they.  His  eye  henceforth  will  not  be  with- 
drawn from  that  wide  view  until  all  shall  be  clear  to 
him,  and  he  shall  be  accepted  as  his  nation's  prophet  and 
seer.  The  speech  to  which  I  refer  may  be  overcharged 
with  rhetoric,  a  vice  that  is  common  with  young  orators, 
but  it  has  the  true  ring  of  sincerity  and  patriotism,  and 
time  will  add  the  charm  and  force  of  directness  and  sim- 
plicity to  his  style. 

In  all  the  political  campaigns  of  the  time  his  voice  was 
heard  in  the  meetings  of  politicians, in  the  grocery, or  the 
office  or  on  the  rostrum.  He  was  a  central  figure  in  these 
meetings.  He  studied  politics,  got  in  shape  his  argu- 
ments, and  learned  the  art  of  putting  things  to  an  aver- 
age American  audience,  as  few  politicians  have  acquired 
it.  The  question  of  the  sub-treasury  was  an  absorbing 
question  of  1840.  It  was  the  Democratic  party  measure 
to  provide  for  the  convenient  and  safe  keeping  of  the  na- 
tional funds.  It  has  proved  a  wise  expedient,  but  Mr. 
Lincoln  opposed  it,  as  did  his  party.  Apparently,  on 
questions  of  public  credit,  fiscal  expedients  and  finance, 


38  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

he  was  not  destined  to  be  an  authority.  It  was  on  the 
questions  of  freedom  and  union,  and  the  measures  that 
make  for  them,  that  he  was  to  specialize  and  succeed. 
^Meanwhile,  he  was  working  hard  at  the  bar,  but  leaving 
no  opportunity  unused  to  evince  his  interest  in  politics. 

In  1843,  he  aspired  to  run  for  Congress,  but  was  dis- 
tanced in  the  race  for  the  Whig  nomination  by  E.  D. 
Baker.  He  was  appointed  a  delegate  to  the  nominating 
convention,  and  magnanimously  served.  He  humorous- 
ly alludes  to  his  predicament  in  writing  to  his  friend 
Speed,  where  he  says,  "In  getting  Baker  the  nomination 
I  shall  be  fixed  a  good  deal  like  a  fellow  who  is  made 
groomsman  to  a  man  that  has  cut  him  out  and  is  marry- 
ing his  own  dear  'gal.'  " 

In  1844,  he  was  a  candidate  for  election  on  the  Whig 
ticket,  and  stumped  the  state  for  Mr.  Clay  for  President. 
In  joint  debates  and  independent  speeches  he  maintained 
his  Whig  principles  and  chivalrously  labored  for  the 
idol  of  his  party.  The  defeat  of  Clay  was,  to  him,  a 
source  of  sorrow,  but  setting  aside  his  political  disap- 
pointment, he  studiously  set  himself  to  the  discharge  of 
his  professional  duties  until  1846,  when  he  was  nomina- 
ted for  Congress  and  elected.  Peter  Cartwright  was  the 
standard-bearer  of  the  opposition.  He  was  a  doughty 
antagonist,  whose  clerical  relations  were  dead  weight 
upon  him,  and  Mr.  Lincoln  easily  "got  the  preacher"  as 
he  expressed  it,  and  with  the  aid  of  Democratic  votes. 
He  was  the  only  Whig  member  from  Illinois,  and  thus 
came  into  special  prominence.  Some  of  his  colleagues 
from   the  state  w-ere  Wentworth,  McClernand,  Ficklin, 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


30 


Richardson  and  Turner.     Douglas  had  just  reached  the 
Senate. 

The   roll    of   the    house  at   this,   the    30th  Congress, 
showed  a  galaxy  of  great  names.      Robert  Winthrop  was 
the  Speaker,  and  among  the  Whigs  were  John   Quincy 
Adams,   Horace   Mann,    Col  la- 
mer,   Stephens    and  Toombs; 
and     among     the     Democrats 
were    Wilmot    and  Cobb,   IMc- 
Dowell  and  Andrew  Johnson, 
while   Webster   and    Calhoun, 
and   Benton  and  Clayton  were 
members  of  the  Senate. 

Lincoln  at  once  took  an  act--"^ 
ive  part  in  the  discussions 
that  related  to  the  Mexican 
War,  that  scheme  of  the 
Southern  statesmen  to  acquire 
more  territory  for  the  ex- 
pansion of  slavery.  He  held,  as  did  the  Whigs,  that  the 
war  was  unnecessarily  and  unconstitutionally  begun, 
and  in  his  famous  "Spot  Resolutions,"  he  called  upon 
the  president  to  put  his  finger  on  the  spot  on  American 
soil  on  which  the  Mexicans  were  aggressors,  as  the 
president  had  alleged.  Mr.  Lincoln  did,  however,  vote 
with  his  party  to  give  supplies  to  the  troops  and  thanks 
to  the  generals  wdio  conducted  the  war,  while  censuring 
the  president  for  his  part  in  bringing  it  on.  Mr.  Lin- 
coln had  a  weary  time  explaining  to  his  constituents 
what  they  considered   his  inconsistency  in  attacking  the 


Andrew  Johnson. 
Born  180d.       Died  1875. 


40  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

president  for  bringing  on  the  war  and  then  voting  sup- 
plies for  its  conduct.  Before  his  return  from  the  east 
and  after  the  session  of  Congress,  he  made  several  cam- 
paign speeches  in  New  England,  enlarged  his  acquaint- 
ance and  became  more  familiar  with  the  elements  that 
should  enter  into  future  politics. 

His  second  session  passed  without  any  striking  inci- 
dent save  one  that  indicated  his  attitude  to  the  slavery 
question.  On  the  Wilmot  Proviso,  which  favored  the 
purchase  of  Mexican  territory  and  prohibiting  of  slavery 
thereon,  he  voted,  as  often  as  it  was  up,  in  the  affirma- 
tive, and  he  himself  proposed  a  resolution  for  the  gradu- 
al compensated  emancipation  of  slaves  in  the  District  of 
Columbia.  Thus  ended  his  congressional  career  in 
which,  in  the  national  arena,  he  had  gained  a  unique 
outlook  on  public  affairs,  and  where  he  won  some  repu- 
tation as  a  consistent  Whig,  loyal  to  his  party,  and  op- 
posed to  the  extension  of  slavery;  and  likewise  as  a  po- 
litical antagonist,  clear  in  statement,  fertile  in  illustra- 
tion, and  with  a  talent  for  ridicule  and  sarcasm  that  was 
difficult  to  be  reckoned  with.  He  easily  yielded  the 
nomination  to  the  next  Congress  to  his  friend,  Stephen 
T.  Logan,  and  continued  the  practice  of  law,  but*  with 
an  abiding  interest  in  national  affairs,  ready  when  the 
time  should  again  come,  to  take  his  part  in  the  struggle. 

From  1848  to  i860,  his  chief  w^ork  as  a  lawyer  was  to 
be  done,  and  likewise  the  work  that  should  determine 
his  selection  as  a  candidate  for  the  presidency  of  the 
United  States.  In  i860,  the  scene  of  his  legal  services 
lay  in  the  eighth  judicial   circuit  in  which   Sangamon 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  41 

County  was  included  till  1859.  The  court  intinerated 
from  county  to  county,  and  Mr.  Lincoln  followed  it, 
first  on  a  borrowed  horse,  then  on  a  nag  of  his  own,  which 
he  cared  for  himself,  and  later,  in  a  second-hand  buggy. 
His  coming  was  always  welcomed  at  the  hotel  where  he 
was  wont  to  stop  and  by  the  lawyers  on  the  circuit.  Un- 
complaining, genial  and  unselfish,  he  met  the  incidents 
and  inconveniences  of  this  itinerant  life  in  so  cheerful  a 
manner,  and  his  pranks  and  stories  were  so  enjoyable, 
that  outside  of  the  court  room  and  in  it,  no  one  was  more 
popular  than  he.  His  honesty  was  a  proverb.  No  shady 
case  had  any  standing  or  encouragement  from  him.  Pov- 
erty was  no  bar  to  the  securement  of  his  services,  and 
when  he  entered  on  a  case  to  which  his  judgment  aud 
conscience  were  committed  he  entered  upon  it  with  a 
thoroughness  and  fearlessness  which  seldom  met  with 
failure. 

Judge  Caton,  for  many  years  one  of  the  judges  of  the 
Supreme  Court  and  intimate  with  Mr.  Lincohi,  says  of 
him:  "He  was  a  close  reasoner,  reasoning  by  analogy  and 
usually  enforcing  his  views  by  apt  illustrations.  His 
mode  of  speaking  was  generally  of  a  plain  and  unimpas- 
sioned  character,  yet  abounding  with  eloquence,  imagin- 
ation and  fancy.  His  great  reputation  for  integrity  was 
well  deserv^ed.  The  most  punctilious  honor  ever  marked 
his  professional  and  private  life.  He  seemed  entirely  ig- 
norant of  the  art  of  deception  and  dissimulation.  His 
frankness  and  candor  were  elements  which  contributed  to 
his  professional  success.  If  he  discovered  a  weak  point 
in  his  cause  he  frankly  admitted  it  and  thereby  prepared 


42  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

the  mind  to  accept  the  more  readily  his  mode  of  avoid- 
ing it.  No  one  ever  accused  him  of  taking  an  unfair  or 
underhanded  advantage  in  the  whole  course  of  his  pro- 
fessional career." 

He  put  the  kindest  construction  possible  on  the  frail- 
ties of  his  fellow  men.  He  sympathized  with  the  un- 
fortunate, and  relieved  them  to  the  utmost  of  his  ability 
in  their  distress.  He  was  true  as  steel  to  his  clear  appre- 
hension of  intellectual  and  moral  truth,  unyielding  in 
matters  of  honor  and  principle.  He  could  f.ay  an  adver- 
sary relentlessly  who  by  cowardice  or  meanness,  by  ma- 
lice or  greed,  exposed  himself  to  his  denunciation.  He 
could  be  tender  as  a  woman  to  misfortune  or  suffering. 
He  was  wondrously  constituted  to  be  a  great  jury  lawyer 
with  his  power  of  analysis,  his  logical  faculties,  his  gen- 
erous sympathies,  his  apt  illustration,  his  candor  and  his 
irresistable  humor. 

He  w^as  offered  a  lucrative  partnership  in  Chicago  with 
Grant  Goodrich  on  his  return  from  congress,  but  he  pre- 
ferred his  old  circuit  and  his  old  companions.  Though 
he  w^as  frequently  called  to  the  trial  of  cases  in  prominent 
courts  in  his  own  and  other  states,  and  responded  to  the 
call,  his  heart  was  with  his  comrades  on  his  old  circuit, 
and  he  could  not  be  tempted  from  it.  The  day  before 
he  left  Springfield  for  Washington,  in  1861,  he  went  to 
the  office  to  settle  up  some  unfinished  business.  After 
disposing  of  it  he  gathered  a  bundle  of  papers  and  books 
he  wished  to  take  with  him.  Presently  he  addressed  Mr. 
Herndon,  his  old  partner: 

"Billy,  how  long  have  w^e  been  together?" 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  43 

^'Over  sixteen  years,"  he  answered. 

"We've  never  had  a  cross  word  during  all  that  time, 
have  we?" 

Then,  starting  to  go,  he  paused  and  asked  that  the 
sign-board  of  Lincoln  &  Herndon  which  hung  on  its 
rusty  hinges  at  the  foot  of  the  stairs  be  allowed  to  re- 
main. 

"Let  it  hang  there  undisturbed,"  he  said,  with  a 
significant  lowering  of  his  voice.  "Give  our  clients  to 
understand  that  the  election  of  a  president  makes  no 
change  in  the  firm  of  Lincoln  &  Herndon.  If  I  live  I 
am  coming  back  sometime  and  then  we'll  go  right  on 
practicing  law  as  if  nothing  had  happened." 

If  Lincoln  had  had  no  other  career  than  as  a  lawyer  in 
Central  Illinois,  he  would  have  occupied  a  unique  place 
among  the  great  lawyers  of  the  state.  But  his  mind  was 
always  at  work  upon  the  higher  problems  of  the  national 
life.  He  declined  to  run  for  congress  in  1848  in  favor  of 
Stephen  T.  Logan,  who  suffered  defeat.  He  declined  the 
governorship  of  Oregon,  preferring  to  remain  in  closer 
touch  with  national  affairs  in  Illinois,  than  he  w^ould  be 
if  he  removed  to  that  distant  region. 

In  1850,  he  again  declined  to  be  a  candidate  for  con- 
gress, though  he  was  strongly  urged.  He  was  coming  to 
the  opinion  that  the  sectional  agitation  between  the  North 
and  South  was  beyond  the  skill  of  politicians  to  settle 
by  the  methods  that  had  been  and  were  still,  being 
tried.  He  had  hoped  that  time  would  heal  the  animosi- 
ties that  threatened  the  existence  of  the  union  and  the 
principles  of  free  government  on  American  soil.     In  con- 


'rr*,^'r:"T>. 


<s?' 


Lincoln's  Home  at  Springfield. 

In  front  of  the  house  stands  the  tree  planted  by  Lincoln  previous 

to  1850. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  45 

versation  with  intimate  friends,  in  1850,  he  stated  that, 
*'the  time  is  coming  when  we  must  all  be  Democrats  or 
Abolitionists."  Though  he  acquiesced  in  the  measures 
of  the  Whig  party,  which  were  favorable  to  compromise 
to  avert  strife,  he  spoke  out  his  own  conviction  as  to  the 
injustice  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  of  1850,  and  seemed 
to  feel  disheartened  as  to  any  improvement  as  things 
were  going. 

In  1852,  his  fellow  citizens  at  Springfield  chose  him  to 
deliver  a  eulogy  upon  the  life  and  services  of  Henry  Clay. 
This  discourse  was  not  remarkable  in  itself,  save  as  it 
was  the  occasion  to  Mr.  Ivincoln  for  emphasizing  the 
opinion  of  Mr.  Clay  in  regard  to  slavery  and  the  proper 
method  of  putting  an  end  to  it.  Mr.  Lincoln  agreed 
with  him  in  his  aversion  to  the  institution  and  the  advis- 
ability of  gradual  emancipation  by  the  voluntary  action 
of  the  people  of  the  slave  states,  and  the  transporting  of 
the  freedmen  to  Africa.  Compensated  and  voluntary 
emancipation  and  transportation  were  the  features  of 
his  plan,  and  he  hoped  that  it  might  be  realized.  Then, 
assuming  the  tones  and  language  of  a  prophet,  he  said: 

"Pharaoh's  country  was  cursed  with  plagues  and  his 
hosts  were  drowned  into  the  Red  Sea  for  striving  to  retain 
a  captive  people  who  had  already  served  them  more  than 
four  hundred  years.  May  like  disaster  never  befall  us. 
If,  as  the  friends  of  colonization  hope,  the  present  and 
coming  generations  of  our  countrymen  shall  by  any  means 
succeed  in  freeing  our  land  from  the  dangerous  presence 
of  slavery,  and  at  the  same  time  restoring  a  captive  peo- 
ple to  their  long  lost  fatherland  with  bright  prospects  for 


46  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

the  future,  and  this,  too,  so  gradually  that  neither  races 
nor  individuals  shall  have  suffered  by  the  change,  it  will 
indeed  be  a  glorious  consummation." 

If  only  that  policy  could  have  prevailed  what  sacrifice 
of  human  blood  and  treasure,  what  agony  and  sorrow,  it 
might  have  saved!     But  it  was  not  to  be. 

The  Fugitive  Slave  Law  had  been  passed  and  in  the 
Dred  Scott  Decision,  not  only  was  that  law  to  be  upheld, 
but  the  most  extravagant  demands  of  slavery  were  to  be 
confirmed  by  the  highest  court  in  the  land.  IMeasures 
were  to  be  set  on  foot  to  open  the  territories  north  of  36°. 
2,0"  to  the  spread  of  slavery.  The  ^Missouri  Compromise 
was  to  be  repealed  and  the  agent  of  this  legislation,  its 
crafty  and  eloquent  advocate,  was  to  be  a  son  of  Illinois, 
the  early  compeer  and  antagonist  of  Mr.Lincoln,  Stephen 
A.  Douglas.  His  rise  in  politics  had  been  phenomenal. 
His  abilities  were  great  and  his  ambition  more  than  kept 
pace  with  them.  His  objective  point  w^as  the  presidency 
of  the  United  States.  If  he  could  become  the  candidate 
of  a  united  Democracy  for  that  high  office,  the  coveted 
prize  was  within  his  reach.  To  this  end,  he  lent  his  great 
abilities  to  the  carrvingf  of  those  measures  that  would  be 
acceptable  to  the  pro-slavery  element  of  the  nation:  He 
identified  him^self  actively  with  every  movement  that 
sought  to  increase  the  area  of  territory  for  slavery  expan- 
sion. He  held  with  Calhoun  and  Davis  that,  under  the 
Constitution,  slaveholders  could  take  their  slaves  into  the 
territories  of  the  United  States,  subject  only  to  the  Mis- 
souri Compromise.  This  obstruction,  as  chairman  of  the 
committee  on  territories,   he  desired  to  set  aside  in  the 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  47 

Kansas-Nebraska  Bill,  which  opened  that  vast  area  of 
land  to  settlers  who  could  vote  up  or  down  the  question 
of  slavery,  within  their  limit.  With  the  passing  of  this 
bill,  the  period  of  compromise  was  over.  Friends  of 
Union  and  Freedom  saw  that  there  was  now  no  prospect 
of  peace  without  submission  to  the  extravagant  and  re- 
volting pretensions  of  the  pro-slavery  party. 

It  was  now  that  Mr.  Lincoln  girded  himself  for  the 
great  contest  of  his  life,  and  at  once,  as  if  by  common 
consent,  he  became  the  leader  of  the  Anti-Nebraska  party, 
as  Mr.  Douglas  was  the  leader  of  the  opposing  party  in 
the  North,  and  attention  was  fastened  on  these  two  great 
antagonists  whose  strife  should  continue  until  freedom  or 
slavery  should  prevail.  It  was  in  October,  1854,  that 
they  first  measured  weapons  at  the  Illinois  State  fair. 
Mr.  Douglas  defended  his  position  with  his  usual  ability 
and  Mr.  Lincoln  was  put  up  to  answer  him.  There  was 
a  marked  contrast  in  the  men.  One  was  small  of  stature 
but  of  great  physical  force,  a  successful  demagogue,  a 
skilled  debater,  ready  and  resourceful,  ambitious  for  pow- 
er, contending  for  measures  abhorent  to  the  spirit  of  free 
institutions  as  a  means  to  the  accomplishment  of  his  am- 
bitions. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  stalwart,  angular,  and  plain,  not  de- 
void of  ambition,  but  resolutely  opposed  to  the  gaining 
of  a  single  foot  of  American  soil  for  the  extension  or  per- 
petuation of  slavery.  He  attacked  the  positions  of  Mr. 
Douglas  with  clearness  and  force.  He  so  completely  un- 
covered his  purposes  that  he  carried  his  audience  captive, 
and  his  speech  was  so  permeated  with  intense  moral  con- 


48  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

viction,  that  he  often  quivered  with  emotion  in  its  utter- 
ance. Others  addressed  the  people  that  day,  but  to  Mr. 
Lincoln  was  awarded  the  honor  of  having  pierced  the 
armor  of  his  antagonist,  and  of  having  won  the  right  to 
carrv  the  standard  of  freedom  into  the  battle  that  could 
not  be  averted. 

The  Abolitionists  of  the  state  now  sought  to  commit 
him  fully  to  their  programme.  They  felt  that  in  his 
Anti-Nebraska  utterances  he  was  with  them  and  ou^ht 
to  declare  himself  fully,  but  he  avoided  them.  The  time 
for  him  had  not  yet  come.  In  the  fullness  of  time  he 
could  be  more  useful  to  the  cause  of  union  and  freedom 
by  a  conservative  record  than  if  he  had  been  open  to  the 
charge  of  being  a  fanatical  abolitionist.  On  the  question 
of  the  Anti-Nebraska  Bill  he  could  take  strong  ground, 
and  he  followed  ^Ir.  Douglas  to  Peoria  to  repeat  the  same 
triumph  in  debate  as  at  Springfield. 

In  1854,  in  spite  of  his  unwillingness,  he  was  elected 
to  the  Illinois  Legislature.  A  senator  was  to  be  elected 
at  that  session  in  place  of  General  Shields,  and  Lincoln 
now  aspired  to  that  position.  There  was  an  Anti-Ne- 
braska majority  of  two  on  joint  ballot,  but  some  of  them 
were  pronounced  Abolitionists,  for  whom  Mr.  Lincoln's 
position  was  not  sufficiently  advanced,  and  five  were  Dem- 
ocrats, who  preferred  to  vote  for  a  senator  with  antece- 
dents like  their  own.  To  the  Abolitionists,  ]\Ir.  Lincoln 
easily  pledged  himself  to  vote  for  the  exclusion  of  slavery 
in  all  territories  of  the  United  States.  Matteson,  the  Dem- 
ocratic candidate,  was  almost  elected.  The  Anti-Ne- 
braska Democrats  would  probably  vote  for  him  on  the 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  4g 

next  ballot  in  preference  to  a  Whig  like  Lincoln. 
In  this  emergency  Mr.  Lincoln  magnanimously  said 
to  the  Whigs,  "You  ought  to  drop  me  and  go  for  Trum- 
bull. That  is  the  only  way  you  can  defeat  Matteson. 
The  cause  in  this  case  is  to  be  preferred  to  men." 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  reserved  for  the  conspicuous  cam- 
paign of  1 858,  when  he  should  contest  for  senatorial  hon- 
ors with  Mr.  Douglas  and  discuss  the  great  issues  of  slav- 
ery extension  in  the  hearing  of  the  nation.  Meanwhile, 
the  bloody  conflicts  between  the  freedom  loving  settlers  of 
Kansas,  and  the  border  ruffians,  took  place,  and  the  North 
became  aroused  over  the  plan  of  the  pro-slavery  men  to 
foist  pro-slavery  constitutions  upon  the  territories  that 
should  seek  admission  to  the  union.  For  these  events,  Mr. 
Lincoln  held  Mr.Douglas  responsible,and  he  likewise  held 
fast  to  the  conservative  position  that  the  repeal  of  the 
Missouri  Compromise  was  an  act  of  bad  faith,  and  that 
slavery  should  not  be  extended  into  territories  heretofore 
free. 

The  first  national  convention  of  the  Republican  party 
met  in  February,  1856,  and  made  its  platform  on  the  lines 
of  Mr.  Lincoln's  contention  on  the  subject  of  slavery. 
His  prominence  in  the  eye  of  the  party  was  evinced  by 
the  fact  that  from  that  convention  he  received  no  votes 
for  the  vice-presidency.  His  voice  was  heard  during  the 
campaign,  discussing  the  great  issues  of  the  time.  In 
1858,  a  Democratic  state  convention  met  in  Illinois, 
which  besides  nominating  a  state  ticket,  indorsed  the 
name  of  Stephen  A.  Douglas  as  his  own  successor  in  the 
senate.     That  crafty  politician  had  begun  to  have  doubt§ 


50  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

as  to  whether  the  Lecompton  constitution  was  the  act 
and  deed  of  the  people  of  Kansas,  and  sought  to  recall  the 
support  of  the  people  of  his  state, who  were  estranged  from 
him  by  the  violence  that  had  been  introduced  in  Kansas. 
In  the  effort  to  restrain  the  friends  of  freedom  from  freely- 
voting  upon  the  issues  that  were  really  before  them,  it 
was  even  suggested  that  Mr.  Douglas  was  on  his  way  to 
the  Republican  fold. 

I\Ir.  Lincoln  was  not  deceived  by  Mr.  Douglas's  change 
of  attitude.  There  was  an  election  of  senator  in  the  next 
year  in  the  state  of  Illinois,  and  the  two  candidates  were 
the  author  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill  and  his  most  con- 
spicuous opponent.  If  this  prize  should  not  slip  from 
Mr.  Douglas's  grasp,  he  must  disavow  some  of  the  fruits 
of  his  labor  on  behalf  of  slavery,  and  thus  retain  enough 
of  his  former  supporters  for  his  election.  It  was  upon 
his  record  as  a  tool  of  slavery  to  open  the  territories  to 
that  institution,  and  upon  the  ground  of  his  inconsistency 
in  presenting  the  doctrine  of  popular  sovereignty,  that 
Mr.  Lincoln  assailed  him  in  his  candidacy  for  the  United 
States  Senate. 

In  April,  1858,  a  Democratic  state  convention  met  in 
Illinois  and  indorsed  Mr.  Douglas.  He  had  so  befogged 
many  leading  men  of  Illinois  that  they  begged  the  Re- 
publicans to  trust  him,  and  put  no  one  in  nomination 
against  him.  Already  Mr.  Lincoln  perceived  that  Mr. 
Douglas  had  been  crowded  into  a  position  that  would  ul- 
timately destroy  his  chances  of  leading  a  united  Demo- 
cratic party  in  a  national  election,  for  in  failing  to  uphold 
the  Lecompton  convention,  and  in  representing  in  Illinois 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  51 

that  popular  sovereignity  would  demonstrate  the  ability 
of  the  territories  to  protect  themselves  from  slavery,  he 
created  genuine  alarm  in  the  South.  Mr.  Lincoln's  bat- 
tle was  nearly  won.  It  did  not  matter  if  Mr.  Douglas 
should  defeat  him  by  his  insincere  scheming  in  1858.  A 
greater  day  of  reckoning  was  coming  in  i860. 

On  the  1 6th  of  June  the  Republican  convention  of  Illi- 
nois passed  a  resolution  unanimously  declaring  that"  Abra- 
ham Lincoln  is  our  first  and  only  choice  for  United  States 
Senator  to  fill  the  vacancy  about  to  be  created  by  the  ex- 
piration of  Mr.  Douglas's  term  of  office."  On  the  evening 
of  that  day  he  locked  his  office  door  and  produced  the 
manuscript  of  a  speech  and  read  the  opening  paragraph 
to  his  partner,  Mr.  Herndon.  When  he  had  finished  he 
looked  into  the  astonished  face  of  Mr.  Herndon  and  asked 
him,  "How  do  you  like  that?" 

It  was  the  speech  that  was  to  be  delivered  before  the 
Republican  convention,  avowing  his  candidacy  for  the 
Senate.    The  paragraph  was  as  follows: 

"Gentlemen  of  the  Convention:  If  w^e  could  first  know 
where  we  are  and  whither  we  are  tending,  we  could  then 
better  judge  what  to  do,  and  how  to  do  it.  We  are  now 
far  on  into  the  fifth  year  since  a  policy  was  initiated  with 
the  avowed  object  and  confident  promise,  of  putting  an  end 
to  slavery  agitation.  Under  the  operation  of  that  policy, 
that  agitation  has  not  only  not  ceased  but  has  constantly 
augmented.  In  my  opinion  it  will  not  cease  until  a  crisis 
has  been  reached  and  passed.  'A  house  divided  against 
itself  cannot  stand.'  I  believe  this  government  cannot 
endure,  permanently,  half  slave  and  half  free.       I  do  not 


52  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

expect  the  Union  to  be  dissolved.  I  do  not  expect  the 
house  to  fall.  But  I  do  expect  it  will  cease  to  be  divid- 
ed. It  will  become  all  one  thing  or  all  the  other.  Either 
the  opponents  of  slavery  will  arrest  the  farther  spread  of 
it  and  place  it  where  the  public  mind  shall  rest  in  the 
belief  that  it  is  in  the  course  of  ultimate  extinction,  or 
its  adversaries  will  push  it  forward  till  it  shall  become 
alike  lawful  in  all  the  states,  old  as  well  as  new;  North 
as  well  as  South." 

Then  followed  a  masterly  review  of  the  aggressive 
steps  by  which  pro-slavery  legislators  had  sought  to  ex- 
tend the  institution,  and  the  part  that  Mr.  Douglas  had 
played  in  it,  and  his  present  inconsistent  attitude  toward 
his  party  and  his  insincere  overture  to  the  Republican 
party.  Then  with  the  clarion  peal  of  an  acknowledged, 
trusted,  and  confident  leader,  he  concluded: 

"Two  years  ago  the  Republicans  of  the  nation  mus- 
tered, over  thirteen  hundred  thousand  strong.  We  did 
this  under  the  single  impulse  of  resistance  to  a  common 
danger,  wdth  every  external  circumstance  against  us.  Of 
strange,  discordant,  and  even  hostile  elements,  we  gath- 
ered from  the  four  winds,  and  formed  and  fought  the  bat- 
tle through  under  the  constant  hot  fire  of  a  disciplined, 
proud  and  pampered  enemy.  Did  we  brave  all  that  to 
fall  now?  Now,  when  that  same  enemy  is  wavering,  dis- 
severed and  belligerent?  The  result  is  not  doubtful.  We 
shall  not  fail:  If  we  stand  firm  we  shall  not  fail.  Wise 
counsels  may  accelerate  or  mistakes  delay  it,  but  sooner 
or  later  the  victory  is  sure  to  come." 

Mr.   Herndon  said,    "Is  it  politic  to  speak  it  as  it  is 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  53 

written?"  referring  to  the  expression,  ''A  house  divided 
against  itself  cannot  stand." 

Mr.  Lincoln  answered,  "I  want  to  use  some  universally 
known  figure,  expressed  in  simple  language  as  universally 
known,  that  may  strike  home  to  the  minds  of  men  in  or- 
der to  rouse  them  to  the  peril  of  the  times.  I  would 
rather  be  defeated  with  this  expression  in  the  speech,  and 
it  held  up  and  discussed  before  the  people,  than  to  be  vic- 
torious without  it." 

Other  friends  were  called  in  council.  They  thought 
his  utterance  impolitic  and  sure  to  lead  to  his  defeat.  Mr. 
Lincoln  heard  them  patiently.  Mr.  Herndon  was  the 
only  one  who  said: 

"Lincoln,  deliver  it  just  as  it  reads,  the  speech  is  true, 
wise,  politic  and  will  succeed  now  or  in  the  future." 

Then  Mr.  Lincoln  broke  silence  and  said,  "Friends,  I 
have  thought  about  the  matter  a  great  deal,  have  weighed 
the  question  well  from  all  corners,  and  am  thoroughly 
convinced  the  time  has  come  when  it  should  be  uttered, 
and  if  it  must  be,  that  I  must  go  down  because  of  this 
speech,  then  let  me  go  down  linked  to  truth,  die  in  the 
advocacy  of  what  is  right  and  just.  This  nation  cannot 
live  on  injustice.  'A  house  divided  against  itself  cannot 
stand,'  I  say  again  and  again." 

He  spoke  these  words  with  deep  emotion.  For  him 
the  die  was  cast.     The  speech  was  delivered. 

The  Democrats  thought  he  had  dug  his  political  grave. 
The  conservative  Republicans  shrugged  their  shoulders. 
They  thought  it  presaged  defeat.  The  radical  Republi- 
cans and  the  Abolitionists  recognized  in  it  the  platform 


54  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

of  the  coming  struggle,  and  the  watchword  of  victory. 

Then  followed  the  campaign  with  its  joint  meetings. 
It  was  the  intellectual  combat  of  Titans.  Mighty  as- 
semblies gathered  all  over  the  state,  and  the  press  of  the 
nation  reproduced  the  struggle  so  that  the  entire  country 
witnessed  the  combat.  The  whole  question  of  slavery, 
and  Mr.  Douglas's  relation  to  it,  was  discussed,  in  a 
manner  perfectly  satisfactory  to  the  friends  of  freedom 
and  union.  In  the  course  of  the  campaign,  with  the 
shrewdness  of  the  great  lawyer  that  he  w^as,  Lincoln  asked 
Mr.  Douglas  for  a  candid  answer  to  four  questions  that  he 
might  get  an  answer  to  one  of  them.  That  question  was, 
"Can  the  people  of  a  United  States  Territory  in  any  law- 
ful way,  against  the  wishes  of  any  citizen  of  the  United 
States,  exclude  slavery  from  its  limits?" 

Mr.  Douglas  answered,  "It  matters  not  what  way  the 
Supreme  Court  may  hereafter  decide  as  to  the  abstract 
question,  whether  slavery  may  or  may  not  go  into  a  ter- 
ritory, under  the  Constitution.  The  people  have  the  law- 
ful means  to  introduce  or  exclude  it  as  they  please,  for 
the  reason  that  slavery  cannot  exist  a  day  or  an  hour 
anywhere  unless  it  is  supported  by  local  police  regula- 
tions. Those  police  regulations  can  only  be  estiiblished 
by  the  local  legislature,  and  if  the  people  are  opposed  to 
slavery  they  will  elect  representatives  to  that  body  who 
will,  by  unfriendly  legislation,  effectually  prevent  the  in- 
troduction of  it  into  their  midst." 

The  doctrine  of  "possible  unfriendly  legislation" 
alarmed  and  incensed  the  South.  The  wedge  that  had 
been  started  by  Mr.  Douglas's  Anti- Lecompton  attitude, 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  55 

was  driven  still  deeper  by  the  answer  to  this  question.  It 
presaged  the  sundering  of  the  Democratic  party  in  twain, 
and  the  triumph  of  the  principles  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  Spring- 
field speech.  The  election  that  should  determine  the 
senator-ship  took  place  Nov.  2,  1858.  The  ticket  which 
Mr.  Lincoln  championed  had  four  thousand  more  votes 
than  the  Democratic,  but  by  an  old  and  inequitable  ap- 
portionment of  the  districts  of  the  state,  a  majority  of 
the  law-makers  chosen  were  Democrats.  Mr.  Douglas 
was  re-elected.  When  asked  how  he  felt  over  the  re- 
sult, Mr.  Lincoln  answered  that  he  felt  like  the  boy  that 
stubbed  his  toe.  It  hurt  too  bad  to  laugh  and  he  was 
too  big  to  cry.  But  he  won  a  reputation  as  a  debater 
that  was  a  revelation  to  the  nation.  He  was  so  strong, 
so  fair,  so  temperate,  so  manly,  in  the  great  conflict,  that 
he  instantly  took  front  rank  among  the  national  leaders 
who  were  devoted  to  the  union  and  opposed  to  the  ex- 
tension of  slavery. 

On  the  25tli  of  February,  i860,  he  was  invited  to  New 
York,  and  delivered  at  Cooper  Institute,  before  one  of  the 
most  brilliant  of  American  audiences,  his  masterly  review 
of  the  political  questions  of  the  hour.  His  utterances  were 
all  that  could  be  desired.  The  nation  had  made  his  ac- 
quaintance and  acknowledged  his  power  and  worth. 

On  May  9th  and  loth,  the  Republican  state  convention 
of  Illinois  met  at  Decatur.  Mr.  Lincoln  was  present  as 
a  spectator,  sitting  quietly  just  within  the  door  of  the 
wigwam.  Richard  J.  Oglesby  was  on  the  platform.  He 
arose  and  stated: 

"I  am  informed  that  a  distinguished  citizen  of  Illinois 


56 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


and  one  whom  Illinois  will  ever  delight  to  honor,  is  pres- 
ent, and  I  wish  to  move  that  this  body  invite  him  to  a 
seat  on  the  stand."  Here  Mr.  Oglesby  paused,  as  if  to 
tantalize    his    audience     and    arouse    their    curiosity, 

and  then  he  announced 
the  magic  name  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln. 

Pandemonium  reigned 
for  a  while  in  that  wig- 
wam. Then  the  motion 
w^as  seconded  and  carried 
with  tumultous  shouts  and 
Mr.  Lincoln  was  carried 
over  the  heads  of  the  au- 
dience to  his  place  on  the 
platform.  Mr.  Lincoln 
rose,  smiled,  bowed  and 
blushed,as  if  overwhelmed 
with  the  enthusiastic  attention  of  his  fellow  citizens. 
Later,  Mr.  Oglesby  rose  again  with  a  mysterious  speech 
upon  his  lips: 

"There  is  an  old  Democrat,"  said  he,  "waiting  outside, 
who  has  something  he  wishes  to  present  to  the  conven- 
tion." 

"Receive  it,"  they  cried. 

The  doors  of  the  wigwam  opened  and  in  marched  old 
John  Hanks  with  two  fence  rails  on  his  shoulders,  bear- 
ing the  inscription, "Two  rails,  from  a  lot  made  by  Abra- 
ham Lincoln  and  John  Hanks,  in  the  Sangamon  bottom, 
in  the  year  1830."    The  audience  was  beside  itself.    Mr. 


/ 

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I-. 

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n-TrBTT^p 

Richard  J.  Oglesby, 
War  Governor  of  Illinois. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


57 


Lincoln  blushed  and  laughed.      They  insisted  upon   a 
speech,  and  he  said: 

"Gentlemen:  I  suppose  you  want  to  know  something 
about  those  things.  Well,  the  truth  is  John  Hanks  and 
I  did  make  rails  in  the  Sangamon  bottom.     I  don't  know 


The  Wigwam,  at  Chicago.    The  Building  in  which  Lincoln  was  Nominated 
for  the  Presidency  by  the  Republican  Party,  May  18,  1860. 


whether  we  made  those  rails  or  not.  The  fact  is  I  don't 
think  they  are  a  credit  to  the  makers.  But  I  do  know 
that  I  made  rails  then,  and  think  I  could  make  better 
ones  than  those  now." 

That  convention  closed  with  a  resolution  declaring: 
"Abraham  Lincoln  is  the  first  choice  of  the  Republican 
party  of  Illinois  for  the  presidency,"  and  instructing  the 


58  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

delegates  to  the  Chicagfo  convention  to  use  all  honorable 
means  to  secure  his  nomination  and  to  cast  the  vote  of 
the  state  as   a  unit  for  him. 

Thus  was  the  movement  started  that  should  make 
Abraham  Lincoln,  the  flat-boatman,  the  rail  splitter,  the 
standard-bearer  of  the  Republican  party  in  the  fateful 
election  of  i860. 

The  convention  met  at  Chicago  on  the  i6th  of  May  in 
a  oreat  wig-wam  at  the  corner  of  Lake  and  Market 
Streets.  William  H.  Seward  of  New  York  was  the  rep- 
resentative man  of  the  East  for  the  highest  office  in  the 
gift  of  the  nation,  at  the  hands  of  the  Republican  party. 
Favorite  sons  of  other  states  received  complimxCntar)^  votes 
on  the  first  ballot. 

On  the  third  ballot  IMr.  Lincoln  had  distanced  all 
competitors  and  was  within  1-}^  votes  of  the  nomina- 
tion. Those  votes  were  quickly  given  and  the  nom- 
ination was  made  unanimous.  When  the  dispatch  an- 
nouncing his  nomination  was  handed  him,  at  Spring- 
field, he  started  home  with  it,  saying: 

"Gentlemen,  there  is  a  little  short  woman  at  our  house 
who  is  probably  more  interested  in  this  dispatch  than  I 
am,  and  if  you  will  excuse  me  I  will  take  it  up  and  let 
her  see  it." 

The  formal  letters  of  notification  and  acceptance  were 
passed.  The  Democrats  were  divided,  as  Mr.  Lincoln  had 
foreseen.  His  Freeport  question  had  rent  them  in  twain. 
Douglas  and  Breckenridge  were  their  standard  bearers, 
and  the  result  was  not  dif^rult  to  foresee.  On  the  6th 
of  November,  the  nation  recorded  its  verdict.     Abraham 


William  H.  Seward. 
Born  1801.        Died  1872. 


6o  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

Lincoln  was  President-elect  of  the  United  States.  Be- 
tween November  and  March  there  was  much  to  be  done. 
His  cabinet  was  to  be  chosen,  numerous  offices  were  to 
be  filled,  his  private  affairs  were  to  be  wound  up.  The 
magnanimity  of  his  mind  was  soon  made  apparent  in  his 
willingness  to  appoint  his  opponents  to  the  highest 
offices  within  his  gift. 

He  offered  the  Secretaryship  of  the  Treasury  to  ]\Ir. 
Guthrie  of  Kentucky;  another  secretaryship  was  ten- 
dered to  "Mr.  Gilmer  of  North  Carolina;  Stephens  of 
Georgia  was  also  approached.  He  saw,  as  few  party 
men  could  see,  the  injustice  and  impolicy  of  admin- 
istering the  government  in  the  interest  of  a  party  that 
had  no  existence  in  the  southern  states.  Though 
he  was  a  conqueror,  he  was  a  conciliator,  and  if  grave 
trouble  was  to  be  safely  avoided,  he  would  leave  no  stone 
unturned  to  avoid  it. 

Without  jealousy  or  fear,  he  intrusted  the  foremost 
places  in  his  cabinet  to  his  late  political  rivals,  utterly 
oblivious  to  the  suggestion  that  they  might  outshine  or 
supplant  him. 

Seward,  the  accomplished,  eloquent  statesman  from 
New  York,  he  made  his  Secretary  of  State,  Chase 
his  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  Bates  his  Attorney  Gen- 
eral. 

Cameron  and  Smith  he  appointed  in  deference  to 
the  suggestions  of  his  friends,  for  services  rendered, 
as  alleged,  in  securing  his  nomination.  Hundreds  of 
office  seekers  made  a  pilgrimage  to  Springfield  and 
made  life   a  burden   to    him.      He    listened    to    their 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN,  6l 

plea,  regaled  them  with  an  apposite  story  and  sent  them 
on  their  way.  Many  of  his  old-time  friends  hoped  to  reap 
the  reward  of  their  friendship  in  appointment  to  office, 
and  felt  hardly  toward  him  that  their  cases  were  not  al- 
ways favorably  considered.  But  he  would  not  have  it 
said  that  he  used  his  public  position  in  the  interest  of  his 
friends.  Then  too,  old  friends  and  old  scenes  must  be 
visited  that  he  might  say  good-bye,  for  his  long  absence, 
from  the  region  wdiere  he  had  grown  to  manhood.  He 
made  a  tender  farewell  visit  to  his  old  step-mother,  who 
had  been  a  mother  indeed.  He  visited  New  Salem  and 
shook  hands  watli  thousands  of  his  old  friends,  wdiom  he 
had  known  in  all  tlie  phases  of  his  career. 

The  framing  of  his  policy  and  the  writing  of  his  in- 
augural address  were  absorbing  cares.  As  he  looked  out 
on  the  alarming  situation  in  the  South  and  the  imbecility 
and  knavery  that  was  being  manifested  in  Washington, 
his  forced  inactivity  till  March  was  like  a  consuming 
canker.  Southern  States  were  seceding  and  appropriat- 
ing national  property.  The  arsenals  of  the  North  were 
being  looted  for  the  benefit  of  the  South,  by  order  of  the 
Secretary  of  War.  Frantic  efforts  were  being  made  in 
Congress  to  concoct  some  scheme  of  compromise  that 
would  save  the  union,  and  Mr.  Lincoln  was  implored  to, 
speak  some  word,  or  offer  some  suggestion  as  to  his  poli- 
cy, that  would  help  the  situation.  To  such  as  sought  to 
know  his  position,  he  referred  them  to  his  record. 

To  the  committee  of  thirty- three  in  the  House  he  said, 
"Entertain  no  compromise  in  regard  to  the  extension  of 
slavery."  To  Mr.  Washburnehe  said  on  this  point: 


62 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN, 


"Hold  firm,  as  with  a  chain  of  steel." 
On  Dec.  1 7th,  he  wrote  to  Thurlow  Weed  thaf'no  state 
can  in  any  way,  lawfully,  get  out  of  the  union  without 


.5^«*?^^^., 


President  Lincoln  and  his  Cabinet. 


the  consent  of  the  others,"  and,  that  "it  is  the  duty  of  the 
president  and  other  government  functionaries  to  run  the 
machine  as  it  is."    To  Mr.  Washburne  he  wrote,  for  the 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  63 

advice  of  General  Scott,  "Please  present  my  respects  to 
the  General  and  tell  him,  confidentially,  that  I  shall  be 
obliged  to  him  to  be  as  well  prepared  as  he  can  to  either 
hold,  or  retake  the  forts,  as  the  case  may  require,  at  and 
after  the  inauguration."  The  summary  way  in  which  Gen- 
eral Jackson  had  dealt  with  the  nullifiers  of  1830  and  '32 
was  a  frequent  study  during  these  months  of  waiting. 

At  length  the  time  came  for  his  departure  to  the  scene 
of  his  labors.  With  his  mind  fully  made  up,  his  cabinet 
chosen,  his  inaugural  written,  he  bade  farewell  to  his  old 
partner,  as  we  have  related.  Judge  Gillespie,  an  old 
friend,  called  to  say  good-bye  and  told  him  he  believed 
it  would  do  him  good  to  get  to  Washington. 

"I  know  it  will,"  Lincoln  replied,  "I  only  wish  I  could 
have  got  there  to  lock  the  door  before  the  horse  was  stol- 
en.    But  when  I  get  to  the  spot  I  can  find  the  tracks." 

With  tender  farewell  he  addressed  the  citizens  of  Spring- 
field, commending  them  to  the  Divine  care,  and  begging 
their  prayers  on  his  behalf. 

At  different  stages  on  the  route  he  stated  his  position 
with  a  clearness  that  admitted  no  imcertainty,  that  he 
purposed  to  rule  justly,  respecting  the  rights  of  all  under 
the  Constitution,  maintaining  the  rights  and  possessions 
of  the  nation  in  all  its  parts. 

Assassins  lay  in  wait  for  him,  but  he  avoided  them 
and  reached  the  Capital  in  safety  more  than  a  week  be- 
fore the  inauguration.  On  the  27th  of  February,  when 
waited  upon  by  the  mayor  and  common  council  of  Wash- 
ington, he  assured  them,  and  the  South  through  them, 
that  he  had  no  disposition  to  treat  them  in  any  other  way 


64 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


than  as  neighbors,  and  that  he  had  no  disposition  to  with- 
hold from  them  any  constitutional  rights.  They  should 
all  have  their  rights  under  the  Constitution,  not  grudg- 
ingly, but  fully  and  fairly. 

No  more  fateful  or  solemn  inauguration  of  a  president 
ever  took  place  than  that  of  Abraham  Lincoln  on  the  4th 

of  March,  1861.  As 
he  stood  before  the 
Capitol,  serene,  brave, 
true  to  the  noble  in- 
stincts of  his  nature, 
and  the  promise  of 
his  life,  resolutely  set 
on  upholding  free- 
dom and  the  Consti- 
tution, there  surged 
about  him  a  swarm 
of  traitors  and  con- 
spirators, whose  pur- 
poses were  but  thin- 
ly concealed.  Presi- 
dent Buchanan  was 
there,  whose  irreso- 
luteness  had  permitted  secession  to  get  good  headway. 
Chief-Justice  Taney  and  his  associates  were  there,  whose 
perverse  ingenuity  had  formulated  the  Dred  Scott  De- 
cision. Generals  soon  to  be  conspicuous  in  the  ranks  of 
the  rebel  army,  surrounded  him.  Seward,  the  great  rival 
whom  he  had  distanced,  stood  near.  Chase,  Scott,  Sum- 
ner and  Wade, who  should  hold  up  his  hands  in  the  day  of 


James  Buchanan.    Fifteenth  President 
Born  1791.     Died  1868. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  65 

battle  were  there,  and  Douglas  was  holding  the  president's 
hat,  though  the  ambition  of  his  life  had  been  overthrown 
by  the  man  who  was  now  the  "observed  of  all  observers." 
He  was  solicitous  for  the  safety  and  convenience  of  the 
new  president  and  defiant  to  the  enemies  of  the  union. 

The  great  inaugural  was  but  the  fuller  statement  of  the 
views  to  which  he  had  given  expression  in  the  period 
since  his  election.  It  was  conciliatory,  but  clear  and  firm. 
He  said,  "I  have  no  purpose  directly,  or  indirectly,  to  in- 
terfere with  the  institution  of  slavery  in  the  states  where 
it  now  exists.  I  believe  I  have  no  lawful  right  to  do  so, 
and  I  have  no  inclination  to  do  so."  "I  hold  that  in 
contemplation  of  universal  law  and  of  the  Constitution 
the  union  of  the  states  is  perpetual.  I  shall  take  care, 
as  the  Constitution  itself  expressly  enjoins  upon  me, 
that  the  laws  of  the  union  be  faithfully  executed  in  all 
the  states.  In  doing  this  there  need  be  no  blood-shed 
or  violence  and  there  shall  be  none  unless  it  is  forced 
upon  the  national  authority." 

He  pointed  out  the  way  of  curing  dissatisfaction  with 
the  form  of  government,  by  amending  it,  or  by  their  rev- 
olutionary right  to  dismember  or  overthrow  it.  Then  he 
counseled  patience  in  the  consideraton  of  sources  of  dis- 
satisfaction, declaring  that  intelligent  patriotism  and 
Christianity  and  a  firm  reliance  on  Him  who  has  never 
yet  forsaken  this  favored  land,  are  still  competent  to  ad- 
just, in  the  best  way,  all  our  present  difficulties.  Then, 
as  if  clothed  with  the  full  dignity  of  his  magisterial  of- 
fice, he  pronounced  these  solemn  and  beautiful  sentences, 
*'In  your  hands,  my  dissatisfied  fellow  countrymen,  and 


66  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

not  in  mine,  are  the  momentous  issues  of  civil  war.  The 
government  will  not  assail  you.  You  can  have  no  con- 
flict without  being  yourselves  the  aggressors.  You  have 
no  oath  registered  in  heaven  to  destroy  the  government, 
while  I  have  the  most  solemn  one  to  preserve,  protect, 
and  defend  it.  I  am  loath  to  close.  We  are  not  enemies 
but  friends.  We  must  not  be  enemies.  Though  passion 
may  have  strained,  it  will  not  break  our  bonds  of  affect- 
ion. The  mystic  chords  of  memor}^,  stretching  from 
every  battle-field  and  patriot  grave  to  every  living  heart 
and  hearthstone  all  over  this  broad  land,  will  yet  swell 
the  chorus  of  the  union,  when  again  touched,  as  surely 
they  will  be,  by  the  better  angels  of  our  nature."  But 
these  gentle  words  were  lost  upon  the  men  who  had  al- 
ready committed  themselves  to  the  disruption  of  the 
union  and  the  founding  of  a  Confederacy,  of  which  the 
institution  of  slavery  should  be  the  chief  corner  stone. 

On  the  evening  of  the  4th  of  March,  Mr.  Lincoln  en- 
tered the  White  House,  that  should  be  his  home  for  the 
remainder  of  his  days.  There,  was  sumptuousness  and 
elegance  to  which  he  was  not  accustomed,  formality  and 
etiquette,  that  in  his  quiet  life  he  had  not  practiced,  but 
to  all  he  adjusted  himself  with  that  simple  grace  that 
marked  the  American  citizen, born  to  the  purple  and  des- 
tined to  command. 

He  found  the  government  in  confusion,  seven  states  in 
secession  and  a  rebel  government  already  organized  at 
Montgomery,  Alabama.  The  Southern  heart  had  been 
fired  and  her  young  men  were  in   arms. 

He  nominated  his  cabinet  and  set   himself  earnestly 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


67 


at  work  upon  the  tasks  that  were  forced  upon  him. 
Though  his  counselors  were  able  men,  famed  for  leader- 
ship, they  were  only  his  advisers.  He  was  their  chief, 
President  of  the  Nation  and  Commander-in-Chief  of  the 


The  Bombardment  of  Ft.  Sumter,  April  12,  1861. 

army  and  navy  of  the  United  States.  If  any  of  them 
supposed  that  he  would  divide  that  responsibility  or  yield 
to  their  dictation  they  were  soon,  kindly  but  firmly,  dis- 
abused. Some  of  the  Southern  leaders  thought  that 
there  would  be  no  war,  that  the  North  was  divided  and 
that  the  Northern  people  would  not  fight.     There  was 


68  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

some  encouragement  to  this  idea,  but  not  in  the  calm, 
resolute  purpose  of  the  new  President. 

On  the  15th  of  April,  the  President  issued  his  first  call 
for  seventy-five  thousand  volunteers  to  put  down  the  re- 
bellion. Ft.  Sumter  had  been  attacked  and  had  fallen. 
One  by  one  the  rebel  leaders  had  slunk  away  from  the 
scene  of  their  treason,  Breckinridge  among  the  last.  The 
war  was  forced  upon  him.  Patriotic  devotion  to  the 
Union  effaced  all  differences.  Half  a  million  of  men 
responded  to  the  President's  call.  Congress  voted  men 
and  money  for  the  prosecution  of  the  war.  The  times 
were  inauspicious.  The  best  generals  of  the  country  were 
in  the  rebel  service.  Arms,  ammunition,  and  accoutre- 
ments, had  been  seized,  and  foreign  sympathies,  and  hos- 
tile diplomacy,  raised  grave  problems  for  the  new  exec- 
utive; but  he  faltered  not.  Disasters  came,  incompetent 
commanders  and  inadequate  preparations  demonstrated 
that  war  would  be  discouraging  and  tedious.  Still,  he 
did  not  falter.  He  succeeded  in  holding  Maryland,  Ken- 
tucky and  Missouri  in  the  union,  and  in  dividing  Virgin- 
ia and  holding  West  Virginia  loyal. 

When  Congress  met  in  Dec,  1861,  in  his  message  on 
the  slavery  question,  he  said,  ''I  have  adhered  to  the  act 
of  Congress  freeing  persons  held  to  serv^ice  used  for  in- 
surrectionary purposes."  In  relation  to  the  emancipa- 
tion and  arming  of  the  negroes  he  said,  "The  maintenance 
of  the  integrity  of  the  union  is  the  primar>^  object  of  the 
contest.  The  union  must  be  preserved  and  all  indispen- 
sable means  must  be  employed.  We  should  not  be  in 
haste  to  determine  that  radical   and  extreme   measures, 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


69 


which  may  reach  the  loyal  as  well  as  the  disloyal,  are 
indispensable."  The  possibility  of  injustice  to  the  bor- 
der states  led  him  to  counsel  patience. 

During  this  session  of  Congress,  slavery  was  forbidden 
in  the  territories 
of  the  United 
States,and  Mr.  Lin- 
coln labored  with 
the  representatives 
of  the  border  states 
to  accept  the  idea 
of  gradual  com- 
pensated emanci- 
pation, which  they 
declined.  In  his 
second  message,  he 
urged  the  propo- 
sition upon  con- 
gress of  gradual 
and  compensated 
emancipation.  I 
cannot  forbear 
quoting  some  of 
his  words.     In  concluding  his  appeal  he  said: 

''The  dogmas  of  the  quiet  past  are  inadequate  to  the 
stormy  present.  The  occasion  is  piled  high  with  diffi- 
culty. We  must  rise  with  the  occasion.  As  our  case  is 
new,  so  we  must  think  anew,  and  act  anew.  We  must 
disenthral  ourselves,  and  then  we  shall  save  our  country. 
Fellow  citizens,  we  cannot  escape  history!     We  of  this 


Edwin  M.  Stanton,  Secretary  of  War. 
Born  1814.     Died  1869. 


70  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

congress  and  this  administration,  will  be  remembered  in 
spite  of  ourselves.  No  personal  significance  or  insignifi- 
cance can  spare  one  or  another  of  us.  The  fiery  trial 
through  which  we  pass  will  light  us  down  in  honor  or 
dishonor  to  the  last  generation.  We  say  we  are  for  the 
Union.  The  world  will  not  forget  that  we  say  this.  We 
know  how  to  save  the  Union.  The  world  knows  we  do 
know  how  to  save  it.  We,  even  we,  here  hold  the  power 
and  bear  the  responsibility.  In  giving  freedom  to  the  slave 
we  assure  freedom  to  the  free,  honorable  alike  in  what 
we  give  and  what  we  preserve.  We  shall  nobly  save  or 
meanly  lose  the  last  best  hope  of  earth.  Other  means 
may  succeed;  this  could  not  fail.  The  way  is  plain, 
peaceful,  generous,  just — a  way  which  if  followed,  the 
world  will  forever  applaud  and  God  must  forever  bless." 
His  plan,  so  earnestly  and  eloquently  presented,  re- 
sulted in  no  action.  The  matter  pressed  upon  his  mind 
until,  on  his  own  responsibility,  he  issued  his  proclama- 
tion of  warning,  his  own  magisterial  act,  on  Sept.  22, 
1862,  advising  the  states  in  rebellion  that  if  they  did  not 
return  to  loyalty  by  January,  1863,  he  would  issue  a 
proclamation  emancipating  their  slaves.  January  came, 
and  with  it  the  most  momentous  document  in  the  history 
of  the  country,  wherein  the  names  of  the  states  in  rebel- 
lion were  cited;  and  then,  by  virtue  of  his  power  as  Pres- 
ident of  the  United  States  and  Commander-in-Chief  of  the 
Army  and  Navy,  he  ordered  and  declared  that  "all  per- 
sons held  as  slaves  within  said  designated  states  and  parts 
of  states,  are  and  henceforward  shall  be,  free,"  and  that 
"the  Executive  Government  of  the  United  States,  includ- 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  71 

ing  the  military  and  naval  authorities  thereof,  will  recog- 
nize and  maintain  the  freedom  of  said  persons." 

Upon  this  act,  sincerely  believed  to  be  an  act  of  jus- 
tice warranted  by  the  constitution,  upon  military  neces- 
sity, he  invoked,  "the  considerate  judgment  of  mankind 
and  the  gracious  favor  of  Almighty  God." 

It  was  the  crowning  act  of  his  career.  The  moment 
of  destiny  had  come  and  found  him  ready.  The  promise* 
of  his  young  manhood,  made  amid  the  slave  scenes  of 
New  Orleans,  "If  I  ever  get  a  chance  to  hit  Slavery  I'll 
hit  it  hard,"  was  fulfilled.  Henceforth,  he  is  Lincoln 
the  Emancipator! 

Supplementary  legislation  gave  full  effect  to  the  pur- 
pose of  this  great  document,  reaching  to  the  slaves  in  bor- 
der states  and  in  sections  under  the  control  of  the  Union. 
The  tide  of  battle  turned  in  favor  of  the  Union,  and  ere 
the  close  of  his  term  the  purposes  for  which  he  had  gone 
from  Springfield  to  Washington  were  well-nigh  accom- 
plished. Through  it  all,  he  was  the  masterful  leader, 
bearing  his  own  burden;  resting  his  often  breaking  heart 
and  burdened  mind  with  the  wit  and  humor  that  had  al- 
ways been  so  restful  to  him;  bearing  with  patience  the 
mistakes  and  jealousies  and  malice  of  men;  never  falter- 
ing in  his  steady  course;  wisely  avoiding  entanglement 
with  foreign  nations  till  our  crisis  should  be  passed;  prac- 
ticing humanity  and  kindness  that  sterner  men  thought 
subversive  of  discipline;  approachable  to  all  who  had  an 
errand,  or  who  needed  to  invoke  the  great,  strong,  kind- 
hearted  President.  He  came  down  to  the  close  of  his 
first  term  of  office  to  be  triumphantly   re-elected,  and  to 


72 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


inaugurate  the  work  of  reconstruction,  for  he  who  saved 
the  Union  was,  in  the  judgment  of  the  people,  the  one 
who  might  most  effectually  restore  it  to  its  old  form,  free 

from  the  curse 
of  slavery,  to 
the  condition  of 
a  great  homo- 
geneous c  o  m- 
mon-wealth,  the 
home  of  happi- 
ness and  thrift 
and  freedom. 
He  began  his 
work  with  his 
old  kind,  con- 
ciliatory, yet 
self-confident, 
tact,  and  just  as 
he  had  begun, 
the  bullet  of  an 
assassin  remov- 
ed him  from  la- 
bor to  reward. 
That  assassina- 
tion conferred  on  him  the  crown  of  martyrdom.  If  he 
had  survived,  he  might  have  been  Moses  and  Joshua  in 
one.     It  was  enough  that  he  was  Moses. 

Let  us  close  with  the  words  of  Owen  Lovejoy,  spoken 
when  emancipation  resolutions  were  under  consideration 
and  Mr.  Crittenden  had  said,  "I  have  a  niche  for  Abraham 


Ford's  Theatre,  Washington,  where  Lincoln  was  shot 
by  John  Wilkes  Booth,  April  14,  1865. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  73 

Lincoln."  Mr.  Lovejoy  exclaimed/ 'I,  too,  have  a  niche 
for  Abraham  Lincoln, but  it  is  in  Freedom's  holy  fame  and 
not  in  the  blood  besmeared  temple  of  human  bondage;  not 
surrounded  by  slaves,  fetters  and  chains,  but  with  the 
symbols  of  freedom;  not  dark  with  bondage  but  radiant 
with  the  light  of  liberty.  In  that  niche  he  shall  stand 
proudly,  nobly,  gloriously,  with  shattered  fetters  and 
broken  chains  and  slave  whips   at  his  feet. 

"If  Abraham  Lincoln  pursues  the  path  evidently  point- 
ed out  for  him  in  the  Providence  of  God,  as  I  believe 
he  will,  then  he  will  occupy  the  proud  position  I  have 
indicated.  That  is  a  fame  worth  living  for,  aye,  more, 
that  is  a  fame  worth  dying  for,  though  that  death  led 
through  the  blood  of  Gethsemane  and  the  agony  of  the 
accursed  tree.  That  is  a  fame  which  has  glory,  honor 
and  immortality  and  eternal  life. 

"Let  Abraham  Lincoln  make  himself,  as  I  trust  he 
will,  the  Emancipator,  the  Liberator,  as  he  has  the 
opportunity  of  doing,  and  his  name  shall  be  not  only  en- 
rolled in  this  earthly  temple,  but  it  will  be  traced  on  the 
living  stones  of  the  temple  which  rears  its  head  amid  the 
thrones  and  hierarchies  of  heaven,  whose  top  stone  is  to 
be  brought  in  with  shouting  of  'Grace  unto  it.'" 

Mr.  Lovejoy's  confidence  was  not  in  vain. 


LINCOLN,  "THE  EMANCIPATOR." 

(1809—1865) 

By  G.  Mercer  Adam.* 

IF  there  ever  was  a  life  consecrated  from  early  manhood 
to  humanity's  cause,  it  was  that  of  Lincoln,  ''the  Eman- 
cipator," the  revered  martyred  President  who  fell  in  Free- 
dom's name.  His  death,  sad  and  lamented  as  it  was  and  is, 
was,  however,  a  glorious  and  triumphal  one,  for  it  did 
almost  as  much  for  Freedom,  and,  no  matter  of  what  color 
the  people  were,  for  individual  rights  and  popular  liberty 
in  this  great  nation,  as  was  done  by  the  holocaust  of  human 
life  that  fell  in  their  cause,,  and  by  the  colossal  sums  ex- 
pended throughout  a  most  critical  and  appalling  era.  His 
demise  and  the  manner  of  it,  after  so  strenuous,  honest,  and 
conscientious  a  life,  influenced,  if  it  did  not  actually  mould, 
the  immediate  future  of  the  nation,  and  gave  reconstruction 
such  a  set  and  direction  as  it  might  hardly  otherwise  have 
had,  while  potently  reuniting  and  cementing  the  riven  Union. 
One  far-seeing  and  most  humane  event  in  Lincoln's  admin- 
istration, while  he  lived,  was  instrumental  not  only  in  adding 
glory  to  his  name,  but  in  bringing  about  the  close  of  the 
great  conflict  of  his  time.  We  refer,  of  course,  to  the  edict 
of  Emancipation  and  the  prohibiting  of  slavery  in  the  States 
and   Territories   of   the   Union.     Emancipation,   it   is   true. 


•Historian,  Biographer,  and  Essayist,  Author  of  a  *' Pregls  of  English  History," 
a  "Continuation  of  Grecian  History,"  etc.,  and  for  many  years  Editor  of  Self- 
Culture  Magazine.— The  Publishers. 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  75 

was  resorted  to  as  "a  war  measure"  in  the  thick  of  the 
deadly  contest;  but  with  Lincoln,  long  before  the  era  of 
the  decree  and  the  amendment  to  the  Constitution  which 
abolished  slavery  forever  from  the  country,  the  vile  traf- 
fic had  always  been  held  in  abhorrence,  and  deep  in  his 
mind  had  lain  the  thought  of  abolishing  it  or  seeing  it  abol- 
ished. The  immediate  effect  of  the  measure,  we  know,  was 
to  drive  the  South  to  the  verge  of  desperation ;  while  at  the 
North  it  was  only  partially  accepted  and  for  a  time  it 
aroused  even  bitter  animadversion.  Happily,  however,  a 
change  of  sentiment  came  ere  long,  when  it  was  seen  what 
freedom  meant  to  the  slave,  and  how  telling  were  the  con- 
sequences of  emancipation  in  the  issues  of  the  war.  The 
act,  almost  entirely,  was  Lincoln's  own,  and  its  consumma- 
tion did  surpassing  honor  to  him,  as  well  as  to  his  adminis- 
tration, and,  at  large,  to  the  people  who  endorsed  and  ap- 
plauded it. 

There  is  little  need  here  to  rehearse  the  well-known  in- 
cidents in  Lincoln's  modest  trading  venture  down  the  Mis- 
sissippi, v/hich  kd  the  great  and  humane  President  early  in 
his  career  to  become  an  abolitionist,  though  he  was  never 
a  negrophilist.  To  a  heart  so  tender  as  his  and  so  open  to 
the  dictates  of  justice  and  the  rights  of  all,  the  sights  he  wit- 
nessed in  tliat  expedition  in  the  flatboat  on  the  great  river  of 
manacled  and  whipped  slaves,  were  sufficient  to  turn  his 
mind  and  heart  against  slavery  and  to  avow,  as  he  expressed 
it,  that  some  day  he  would  "hit  it  hard,"  while  he  knew  and 
affirmed  that  it  could  never  be  compromised  with.  His  con- 
servatism and  moderation,  together  with  his  respect  for  law, 
at  the  outset  of  his  career  made  him,  not  tolerant  towards 


'jfi  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

the  evil  institution,  nor  timid  in  his  attitude  towards  it,  but 
careful  to  keep  it  within  bounds  and  prevent  its  extension 
where  it  was  not  law.  This  it  is  that  has  led  some  writers  to 
deny  that  Lincoln  was  opposed  to  slavery  as  a  crime  and  a 
moral  wTong,  and  to  affirm  that  he  assumed  hostility  to  it 
only  as  a  political  manoeuvre,  especially  after  his  memorable 
contest  with  Stephen  A.  Douglas.  This,  we  think,  unfair 
and  ungenerous  toward  the  great  Emancipator,  since  few 
men  in  public  life  have  more  remarkably  shown,  as  Lin- 
coln throughout  his  career  showed,  a  sense  of  moral  right 
and  a  mind  and  heart  influenced  by  humane  motives,  and 
prone  to  kindliness  himself  and  by  precept  and  example 
urged  its  sway  and  interaction  upon  others.  In  some  meas- 
ure, then,  critics  are  right,  and  are  justified  by  Lincoln's  own 
written  and  spoken  words  in  regard  to  slavery.  But  while 
it  is  true  that  Lincoln's  hand  was  for  a  time  stayed  by  the 
limits  of  the  Constitution,  and  by  his  early  powerlessness  to 
root  the  giant  evil  out,  and  while  Emancipation  was  resorted 
to  as  a  means  of  saving  the  Union  by  an  astute  war  meas- 
ure, it  is  nevertheless  also  true  that  its  author  was,  and  had 
long  been,  opposed  in  his  heart  of  hearts  to  the  curse  of 
slavery,  believed  it  to  be  founded  upon  injustice  and  bad 
policy,  and  though  he  would  not  force  abolition  upon  any 
State  against  the  popular  will  and  voice,  he  yet  hated  it 
thoroughly  and  looked  with  pain  and  abhorrence  upon  its 
existence  in  any  and  all  sections  of  the  Union. 

It  may  also  assuredly  be  said  that  Lincoln  looked  forward 
with  confidence  to  the  ultimate  extinction  of  slavery,  though 
it  took,  as  it  did,  a  great  crisis  in  the  history  of  the  Nation 
to  get  rid  of  it.     His  own  belief  in  this  respect  is  enshrined 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  77 

not  only  in  the  momentous  edict  that  forever  banned  it  from 
the  Republic,  in  his  opposition  to  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  on 
the  ground  that  it  deprived  the  black  man  of  the  rights  and 
privileges  of  citizenship,  but  in  those  prophetic  words  of  his 
which  he  uttered  at  the  Springfield  convention,  in  1858,  that 
nominated  him  for  the  United  States  Senate.  In  that  cry 
for  unity  and  singlemindedness  in  the  Nation  he  affirmed  his 
belief  that  the  Government  of  the  country  "cannot  endure 
permanently  half-slave  and  half-free,"  for,  as  he  added,  "a 
house  divided  against  itself  cannot  stand."  Once  more, 
in  1864,  he  said  in  memorable  words,  "if  slavery  is  not 
wrong,  nothing  is  wrong" — a  dictum  of  unmistakable  truth 
and  force ; — while  he  knew  that  the  war  then  going  on  be- 
tween the  North  and  South  was  a  struggle  on  the  part  of 
the  latter,  not  only  for  the  right  of  secession,  but  to  per- 
petuate slavery,  the  one  factor  that  had  divided  the  country 
into  two  hostile  and  irreconcilable  camps,  and  was,  materially 
and  socially,  the  distinctive  barrier  between  them.  With  the 
prescience  that  marked  his  statesmanship,  he  saw  this  fact 
so  clearly  that  the  Proclamation  of  Emancipation  was  the 
result — a  measure  that  almost  everywhere  was  hailed  by  the 
plaudits  of  mankind ;  while,  in  the  wording  of  the  Act  itself 
and  in  Lincoln's  own  defence  of  it,  we  see  the  great  Liber- 
ator's realization  of  the  profound  moral  agitation  of  the  era 
and  the  significance  of  the  remedy  he  would  apply  in  bring- 
ing about  the  abiding  issue  of  the  conflict. 

We  have  dealt  with  Mr.  Lincoln's  moral  convictions  in  re- 
gard to  slavery,  and  of  the  righteousness  of  the  measure  he 
resorted  to  in  planning  and  launching,  at  the  right  juncture 
in  a  critical  time,  the  great  Act  of  Emancipation.     Of  the 


7^  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

President's  other  conspicuous  virtues  and  characteristics 
much  also  might  be  said,  and  that  not  merely  in  the  way  of 
commendation,  but  as  the  memorial  of  an  eminent  and  high- 
ly revered  life  of  perpetual  and  priceless  value  as  an  example 
to  the  Nation.  One  of  the  notable  qualities  in  the  man, 
which  has  been  the  theme  of  not  a  little  controversy,  is  that 
of  his  own  personal  religious  life.  The  question  has  re- 
peatedly been  asked :  ''What  was  his  religious  belief,  if  he 
had  any,"  for  some  venture,  and  wrongly  and  unjustly,  we 
believe,  to  class  him  as  an  unbeliever  and  agnostic.  Of 
]\Ir.  Lincoln's  religious  life  we  do  not  know  much,  since  he 
never  revealed  his  whole  inner  self  to  anyone.  In  early  life 
he  was  doubtless  indifferent  to  religion;  but  when  he  came 
to  high  position  he  appeared  to  treat  office  as  a  trust,  and 
again  and  again  acted  as  if  he  were  plastic  in  the  hands 
of  a  Divine  Being.  His  unblemished  life,  and  thoughtful, 
humane  career,  and  the  consecration  of  himself  to  the  Na- 
tion's need,  show  that  he  lived  his  life  under  a  deep  sense  of 
responsibility  to  a  Higher  Power. 

At  Salem,  Illinois,  he  seems  early  to  have  come  in  con- 
tact with  a  rather  reckless  set  of  men,  of  the  rough  Western 
type,  w^ho  among  their  other  crudenesses  indulged  in  scof- 
fings  at  things  sacred.  With  these  men,  Lincoln,  in  his 
promiscuous  comradeship,  had  associations,  and  it  is  prob- 
able that  at  this  time  he  joined  them  in  their  heedless  flings 
at  Christian  truth,  and  especially  at  the  sects  and  their  jar- 
ring discords.  But  if  he  took  part  in  their  levities,  and 
even  aired  some  of  the  cheap  witicisims  directed  against 
religion  by  Volney  and  Tom  Paine,  of  whose  sceptical  writ- 
ings he  had  been  a  reader,  it  was  at  an  immature  stage  of 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  79 

his  intellectual  and  moral  life,  and  before  he  was  impressed 
with  the  realities  of  human  existence,  and  with  the  providen- 
tial dealings  of  that  Heavenly  Power  which  he  was  after- 
wards profoundly  to  acknowledge  and  pay  reverence  to. 
Later  on,  we  see  the  true,  frank,  outspoken  but  reverent 
man,  who  was  the  embodiment  of  kindness  and  "as  tender 
as  a  woman" — the  man  who  got  near  to  the  people,  for 
whom  he  had  a  great,  large-hearted,  human  love.  To  such 
he  often  spoke  affectionately  and  most  truly  his  mind,  as 
on  the  occasion  of  his  leaving  Springfield,  III,  to  assume  at 
the  capital  the  arduous  duties  of  the  Presidency.  At  the 
station,  before  his  departure,  he  addressed  a  large  assem- 
blage of  his  fellow  citizens  and  old  acquaintances  who  had 
come  to  bid  him  good-bye.  ''Friends,"  he  said  to  them, 
''one  who  has  never  been  placed  in  a  like  position  can  little 
understand  my  feelings  at  this  hour,  nor  the  oppressive  sad- 
ness I  feel  at  this  parting.  I  go  to  assume  a  task  more 
difficult  than  that  which  devolved  upon  Washington.  Un- 
less the  great  God  who  assisted  him  shall  be  with  and  aid 
me,  I  must  fail ;  but  if  the  same  omniscient  mind  and  al- 
mighty arm  that  directed  and  protected  him  shall  guide  and 
support  me,  I  shall  not  fail,  I  shall  succeed."  This  is  the 
true  Lincoln,  and  in  the  above  words  there  is  the  mighty 
source  owned  by  him  of  his  dependence  and  need.  A  like 
religious  attitude  he  also  manifested  throughout  his  admin- 
istrations ;  and  during  the  great  era  of  strife,  when  victory 
was  vouchsafed  to  the  North  by  the  God  of  battles,  often 
to  that  omnipotent  Being  did  he  publicly,  and  among  inti- 
mates and  associates,  give  devout  and  grateful  thanks. 
Another  and  kindred  trait  in  the  man  was  his  tender. 


8o  ABIL\HAM    LINCOLN. 

loving  nature  and  the  warmth  of  his  sympathies  for  those 
who  were  in  trouble,  and  especially  towards  the  common 
people,  whom,  as  he  once  said,  God  must  assuredly  like, 
else,  as  he  characteristically  put  it,  ''He  wouldn't  have  made 
so  many  of  them."  Very  charming  was  the  interesting, 
figurative  manner  in  which  he  would  at  times  address  them ; 
while  in  his  daily  intercourse  he  ever  showed  his  kindly  in- 
terest in  their  welfare,  and,  without  efYort  or  evident  design, 
would  endear  himself  to  them  and  readily  win  his  way  to 
their  hearts.  His  homely  ways  and  quaint  humor — at  times 
also  even  his  caustic  wit — were  qualities  that  further  com- 
mended him  to  the  afifections  of  his  own  rough  people  and 
brought  him  fame  among  those,  far  and  wide,  among  whom 
he  spent  his  early  and  maturing  years.  Nor  among  these 
honest,  simple  folk  were  his  studious  habits,  meditative 
moods,  and  even  his  occasional  plaintive  sadness,  missed  by 
them,  as  many  stories  regarding  him  attest,  such  as  are  told 
by  those  especially  who  knew  him  intimately,  who  worked 
by  his  side,  traded  or  did  business  with  him  in  his  early 
homes,  or  who  spent  the  long  winter  evenings  with  him  by 
his  or  their  own  kindly  though  rude  firesides.  Amid  such 
associations  and  in  such  varied  relations,  Lincoln  was  al- 
ways the  same  modest,  unassuming  man,  the  same  genial, 
kindly  and  sympathetic  friend.  Even  after  good-fortune 
and  a  change  of  circumstances  came  to  him,  aided  by  his 
own  natural  and  acquired  gifts,  he  never  altered  in  this  re- 
spect ;  nor  did  he  ever  suflfer  himself  to  be  beyond  the  reach, 
and  if  need  be  the  aid,  of  an  old  acquaintance  or  of  an 
erstwhile  known  and  rarely-forgotten  face.  Humble  and 
obscure  as  was  his  origin,  and  rough  and  uncouth  as  was 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  8 1 

the  environment  of  his  early  days,  only  the  possession  of  a 
manly,  humanized  mind,  in  close  touch  with  its  fellow-mind, 
and  of  a  soul  far  removed  from  the'ignobleness  and  mater- 
ializing influences  of  high  position,  could  have  kept  Lin- 
coln the  same  kindly,  approachable  man  he  ever  was  and 
remained  to  his  lamentable,  tragic  end. 

We  have  incidentally  referred  to  Lincoln's  studious  habits 
and  meditative  moods,  and  important  were  the  results  to 
him  of  his  early  predilection  for  books  and  the  acquisition 
of  knowledge  through  his  unappeasable  thirst  for  reading. 
The  stimulus  in  the  direction  of  mental  acquisitions  appears 
to  have  been  early  given  him  by  his  kind  and  intelligent 
stepmother ;  though  his  own  ambition  and  longing  for  knowl- 
edge were,  obviously,  an  inheritance  of  birth,  afterwards 
strongly  developed  by  innate  propensity  and  an  eager  desire 
for  information,  so  far  as  such  could  be  gratified  through 
the  facilities  and  materials  within  his  reach.  Meagre,  as  we 
know,  were  these  facilities,  as  were  those  which  he  could 
command  through  the  fitful  periods  of  desultory  schooling. 
The  books  in  early  youth  at  his  service  were,  moreover, 
few,  including  little  besides  the  Bible  and  a  spelling  book; 
for  an  English  grammar,  it  is  said,  he  tramped  six  miles  to 
a  neighbor's  house  to  borrow  and  study  it.  Later  on,  he 
seems  to  have  become  possessed,  or  obtained  the  loan  of, 
Bunyan's  "Pilgrim's  Progress,"  the  Life  of  Henry  Clay, 
and  Weems's  biography  of  Washington.  These  he  eagerly 
devoured.  On  the  first  of  them  he  appears  to  have  formed 
the  rudiments  of  an  eminently  good  literary  style,  after- 
wards assiduously  improved  by  further  reading,  as  well  as 
by  his  own  excellent  judgment  and  good  taste.     On  the 


82  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

biographies,  he  gratified  his  desire  for  some  practical  ac- 
quaintance with  the  poHtical  history  of  his  country,  other 
than  could  be  picked  up  among  his  neighbors  and  fellow- 
settlers,  and  from  such  politicians  of  local  fame  as  he  came 
across.  All  told,  this  material  was  not  much  with  which 
to  equip  the  future  debater  and  statesman ;  but  it  was  more 
to  Lincoln  than  to  a  man  of  less  inquiring  mind  and  with 
little  of  his  powers  of  assimilation  and  reflection.  Not  much 
more  liberal  was  his  training  in  law,  though  he  assiduously 
read  the  statutes  of  his  State  and  some  text-books  and 
other  tomes  of  legal  lore ;  while,  when  he  had  need  to  search 
for  materials  for  any  case  he  had  to  get  up,  he  delved  into 
and  primed  himself  with  the  decisions  of  the  local  courts. 
In  these  and  such  like  exploitations  into  the  dry  literature 
of  the  law,  he  was  greatly  assisi:ed  by  a  retentive  memory 
and  a  remarkable  power  of  getting  into  the  heart  of  a  sub- 
ject and  of  clearly  and  cogently  presenting  it  with  all  the 
illuminating  skill  of  a  sound  understanding. 

When  he  had  gained  some  local  notoriety  and  was 
known  as  "a.  character"  in  the  towns  of  the  West,  he  began 
to  take  active  part  in  the  politics  of  the  time,  and  occasion- 
ally to  mount  the  orator's  stump.  In  this  delectation  he 
more  frequently  indulged,  especially  after  he  had  gained 
confidence  in  his  powers,  and  had  partly  slaked  his  appe- 
tite for  mental  food.  At  this  time  he  even  began  to  com- 
pose a  little,  one  of  his  early  attempts,  it  is  related,  being 
an  essay,  prompted  by  his  humane  feelings,  in  which  he 
denounced  cruelty  to  animals.  What  facility  he  manifested 
later  in  his  career,  in  both  his  written  and  his  spoken  utter- 
ances, it  is  not  a  little  curious  to  trace  back  to  that  early 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  83 

composition  deploring  the  cruelty  of  youth,  in  the  wanton 
snaring  of  birds,  and  on  catching  terrapins  and  putting  live 
coals  on  their  backs.  But  it  was  as  a  stump  speaker  that 
he  more  particularly  shone,  and  on  his  appearance  in  that 
capacity  he  never  lacked  an  audience,  who  enjoyed  to  the 
full  the  jokes  and  abounding  humor  of  his  harangues,  and 
when  in  his  more  earnest  moods,  the  heartfelt  power  and 
effectiveness  of  his  serious  address.  The  success  he  met 
with  as  a  public  speaker  was,  as  we  have  hinted,  not  a  little 
owing  to  his  characteristic  facetiousness,  and,  above  all,  to 
the  fund  of  stories  he  was  possessed  of  and  could  recall  anrl 
use  with  remarkable  appropriateness  to  the  occasion,  while 
giving  added  point  to  his  argument.  As  his  political  educa- 
tion developed,  Lincoln's  fame  as  a  speaker  grew  apace,  es- 
pecially after  his  contest  with  Douglas  over  the  Senator- 
ship,  a  contest  that  showed  in  a  remarkable  manner  what 
his  powers  were  as  a  debater  in  the  field  of  national  as  well 
as  of  local  politics,  and  how  effectively  he  mastered  the  con- 
stitutional and  other  questions  of  the  time  that  enabled  him 
to  floor  his  adversary.  Other  gifts  and  qualities  as  a 
debater  brought  him  success,  particularly  those  that  extort 
admiration  from  an  intelligent,  dispassionate  audience, 
namely,  restraint  in  the  speaker,  that  puts  a  check  upon  un- 
fair as  well  as  inconclusive  argument,  and  the  absence  of 
temper  and  of  anything  bitter  or  personal  in  the  style  and 
manner  of  his  address.  In  these  respects,  the  future  Presi- 
dent was  invariably  honest  with  himself,  as  well  as  with 
his  opponent  and  his  hearers,  and  never  allowed  himself 
to  utter  an  unbecoming  taunt  or  fling  at  those  opposed  to 
him,  even  in  the  most  heated  of  party  controversies.     Such 


84  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN. 

were  the  traits  in  the  man  who,  when  great  issues  v/ere 
beginning  to  loom  on  the  poHtical  horizon,  was  to  take  a 
commanding  position  in  their  discussion  and  direction ;  and 
who  brought  with  him  the  potent  influences  of  a  clean,  high 
heart,  and  a  record  for  all  that  was  worthy  and  honorable 
in  one  aspiring  to  usefulness  and  patriotic  duty  in  public 
Hfe. 

In  treating,  as  ere  long  he  was  called  upon  to  do,  with 
the  great  issues  of  his  time,  another  quality  is  discernable  in 
Lincoln's  public  utterances  that  marks  him  out  as  one  who 
will  long  live  in  the  nation's  heart.  We  refer  to  the  lofty 
sentiments  and  the  profound  religious  tone  of  his  addresses 
and  State  papers.  The  tragic  events  of  the  era  of  the  Civil 
War,  an  era  of  calamities  and  long-enduring  strife,  with  its 
appalling  shedding  of  blood  which  he  deeply  felt  and  de- 
plored, naturally  gave  occasion  for  the  manifestation  of 
emotion  and  for  the  heart-wringings  he  time  after  time 
experienced,  as  news  reached  the  capital  of  some  great  bat- 
tle whose  issues  were  either  adverse  or  favorable  to  the 
Union  cause.  In  reflecting  upon  these  tragedies  of  the  bat- 
tle-field, and  especially  in  commenting  upon  them  on  some 
public  occasion,  as  in  the  Gettysburg  address  or  in  his  sec- 
ond Inaugural,  Lincoln  showed  the  moral  grandeur  of  his 
nature  and  the  deep  heart  of  pity  and  reverence  that  was  in 
him,  by  utterances  of  inspiring  elevation  that  came  home  to 
and  touched  to  the  quick  all  sympathetic  hearts.  For  dignity 
and  simple  beauty,  as  well  as  for  the  fervent  patriotism  which 
inspired  them,  these  addresses  are  unique  in  the  annals  of 
eloquence,  and  as  such  are  surely  destined  to  immortality. 
About, them  there  is  little  of  conscious  artifice;  while  they 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  85 

arc  marked  by  compactness  of  statement,  logicalness  of 
thought,  and  lucidity  of  expression,  as  well  as  by  a  nervous 
force  which  reveals  the  sincere  conviction  of  the  speaker, 
and,  despite  his  wonted  humor,  the  earnestness  and  serious 
caste  of  his  mind.  "To  these  qualities  in  Lincoln,"  ob- 
serves a  writer,  'Svas  added  the  great  gift  of  poetry.  He 
spoke  in  figures,  and  they  were  tropes  that,  while  they  might 
(at  times)  shock  the  polite,  never  failed  to  illustrate  and 
ornament  what  he  was  saving^  to  the  humble." 

Like  the  poet,  Robert  Burns,  of  whose  writings  he  was  a 
delighted  reader  and  memorizer,  Lincoln,  as  we  have  pointed 
out,  was  of  and  near  to  the  people.  He  loved  the  humble 
bard's  songs,  and  like  him,  too,  he  loved  Mother  Earth,  and 
had  that  gentleness  of  nature,  sympathy  for,  and  tender- 
ness toward  his  fellowman  which  distinguished  the  Scot- 
tish poet.  "It  was  this  deep  heart  of  pity  and  love  in  him," 
writes  Hamilton  W.  Triable,  "which  carried  him  far  beyond 
the  reaches  of  statesmanship  or  oratory,  and  give  his  words 
the  finality  of  expression  which  marks  the  noblest  art." 
Of  his  poetic  temperament,  the  same  critic  (Mr.  Mabie) 
thoughtfully  remarks :  "That  there  was  a  deep  vein  of 
poetry  in  Mr.  Lincoln  is  clear  to  one  who  reads  the  story  of 
his  early  life ;  and  this  innate  idealism,  set  in  surround- 
ings so  harsh  and  rude,  had  something  to  do  with  his  mel- 
ancholy. The  sadness  which  was  mixed  with  his  whole  life, 
was,  however,  largely  due  to  his  temperament ;  in  which 
the  final  tragedy  seemed  always  to  be  predicted.  In  that 
temperament,  too,  is  hidden  the  secret  of  the  rare  quality 
of  nature  and  mind  which  sufifused  his  public  speech  and 
turned   so  much   of   it   into  literature.     There   was  humor 


86  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

in  it,  there  was  deep  human  sympathy,  there  was  clear 
mastery  of  words  for  the  use  to  which  he  put  them ;  but 
there  was  something  deeper  and  more  persuasive, — there 
was  the  quahty  of  his  temperament;  and  temperament  is  a 
large  part  of  genius.  The  inner  forces  of  his  nature  play- 
ed through  his  thought ;  and  when  great  occasions  touched 
him  to  the  quick,  his  whole  nature  shaped  his  speech  and 
gave  it  clear  intelligence,  deep  feeling,  and  that  beauty 
which  is  distilled  out  of  the  depths  of  the  sorrows  and 
hopes  of  the  world." 

Another  interesting  feature  in  the  early  career  of  Lincoln 
was  his  resort  to  law  as  a  profession.  His  training  for 
this  was  a  little  less  haphazard  than  his  fitful  school  edu- 
cation ;  though  what  he  picked  up  in  the  way  of  legal  lore 
was,  as  we  are  told,  as  much  "by  sight,  scent,  and  hearing." 
He  attended  the  Courts,  read  the  Indiana  Revised  Statutes, 
heard  law  speeches,  and  listened  to  law  trials.  In  time  he 
became  a  popular  Western  advocate  and  a  scrupulously 
honest  one,  never  upholding  any  case  that  was  not  mor- 
ally right  or  in  which  he  was  likely  to  fail  in  court,  so 
acute  and  deeply  engrained  were  his  honorable  instincts 
and  sense  of  justice.  Where  he  had  doubts  of  his  client's 
truthfulness  and  honesty,  he  would  abandon  his  case  rather 
than  take  up  his  defense  or  argue  in  court  what  he  knew  or 
suspected  to  be  a  false  and  unjust  position. 

Alike  honorable  was  his  attitude  toward  his  fellowman, 
and  especially  with  his  relations  with  women.  ''There 
is  one  part  of  Lincoln's  early  life,"  writes  Professor  Gold- 
win  Smith,  "which,  though  scandal  may  batten  on  it,  we 
shall  pass  over  lightly ;  we  mean  that  part  which  relates  to 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  87 

his  love  affairs  and  his  marriage.  Criticism,  and  even  bi- 
ography, should  respect  as  far  as  possible  the  sanctuary  of 
affection.  That  a  man  has  dedicated  his  life  to  the  service 
of  the  public  is  no  reason  why  the  public  should  be  licensed 
to  amuse  itself  by  playing  with  his  heart-strings.  Not  only 
as  a  storekeeper,  but  in  every  capacity,  Mr.  Lincoln  was 
far  more  happy  in  his  relations  with  men  than  women.  He, 
however,  loved,  and  loved  deeply,  Ann  Rutledge,  who 
appears  to  have  been  entirely  worthy  of  his  attachment, 
and  whose  death  at  the  moment  when  she  would  have  felt 
herself  at  liberty  to  marry  him  threw  him  into  a  transport 
of  grief,  which  threatened  his  reason  and  excited  the  grav- 
est apprehensions  of  his  friends.  In  stormy  weather  especi- 
ally, he  would  rave  piteously,  crying  that  'he  could  never 
be  reconciled  to  have  the  snow,  rain,  and  storms  to  beat 
upon  her  grave.'  This  first  love  he  seems  never  to  have  for- 
gotten. He  next  had  an  affair,  not  so  creditable  to  him. 
Finally,  he  made  a  match  of  which  the  world,  perhaps,  has 
heard  enough,  though  the  Western  lad  was  too  true  a  gen- 
tleman to  let  it  hear  anything  about  the  matter  from  his 
lips.  It  is  enough  to  say  that  this  man  was  not  wanting 
in  that  not  inconsiderable  element  of  worth,  even  the  worth 
of  statesmen,  strong  and  pure  affection." 

His  marriage,  in  1842,  with  Mary  Todd  of  Lexington, 
Ky.,  was,  as  all  know,  not  a  happy  one,  partly  owing,  it  may 
be,  to  her  higher  social  position  and  superior  education, 
but  more  by  reason  of  incompatability  of  temper.  But  of 
this  not  a  word  is  known  to  have  escaped  Lincoln  in  the 
way  of  complaint  or  accusation,  since  his  honor  evidently 
shrank  from  such  disclosures.     What  he  did,  on  the  con- 


88  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

trary,  was  to  devote  himself  with  more  assiduity  and  pa- 
tience to  his  profession,  in  the  practice  of  which,  as  we  have 
affirmed,  he  was  never  mercenary  or  suffered  the  least  taint 
of  dishonor  or  wrongdoing. 

Though  returned  temporarily  a  member  of  Congress  in 
1847,  it  was  not  until  1854  that  his  political  career  actively 
began,  a  few  years  after  the  outbreak  of  the  national  agita- 
tion against  slavery  and  the  enforcement  of  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Law.  At  this  time,  Lincoln's  chief  political  oppon- 
ent was  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  who,  aspiring  to  the  Presi- 
dency, was  courting  the  favor  of  the  South  by  bringing 
forward  his  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill,  which  practically  was 
a  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  of  1850  opening  the 
territory  to  the  extension  of  slavery  and  adding  to  the  politi- 
cal preponderance  of  the  Slave  States.  It  was  at  this  junc- 
ture, when  "the  irrepressible  conflict''  began,  that  Lincoln 
came  actively  and  interestedly  on  the  scene  and  set  himself 
to  wrestle  with  the  evil  institution  as  an  outspoken  aboli- 
tionist. Soon  now  (1858)  occurred  the  famous  debates 
in  Illinois  between  Lincoln  and  Douglas,  in  which  the 
former  delivered  himself  of  the  effective  rhetorical  figure 
of  ''the  house  divided  against  itself,"  which  gave  point  to 
the  controversy  now  on  between  freedom  and  slavery,  and 
in  that  keynote  brought  himself  to  the  fore  as  a  candidate 
for  the  United  States  Senate,  with  an  evident  eve  the  while 
to  the  office  of  the  President.  Though  Douglas  was  suc- 
cessful in  the  contest  for  the  lesser  post,  Lincoln,  by  the 
masterly  part  he  took  in  the  debates  with  "the  little  giant," 
commended  himself  to  the  West  as  a  candidate  for  the  chief 
office  in  the  nation,  and  in  the  East  spread  his  fame  among 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  89 

the  electorate  at  large,  especially  after  his  able  political  ad- 
dress at  the  Cooper  Institute,  New  York,  in  February,  i860, 
followed  by  other  telling  speeches  in  New  England.  The 
result  came  later  in  the  year,  with  dissensions  and  a  split 
in  the  Democratic  party  and  the  nailing  of  antislavery  col- 
ors on  the  Republican  banners,  aided  by  the  furore  in  the 
entire  North  over  threatened  secession  and  the  coming 
precipitation  of  a  conflict  betwen  the  two  radically  opposed 
sections  of  the  Union.  In  November  the  Republican  party 
won  by  a  large  plurality  in  the  North,  in  the  contest  at 
Chicago,  and  Lincoln  was  elected  to  the  Presidency.  In 
the  follov/ing  March  (1861),  the  inauguration  at  Wash- 
ington took  place,  and  the  humble  frontier  "rail-splitter" 
assumed  the  reins  of  the  Federal  government,  determined, 
God-willing,  to  maintain  the  integrity  of  the  Nation  and 
uphold. its  undivided  authority. 

The  election  and  installation  of  President  Lincoln  as  suc- 
cessor in  office  to  the  then  chief  magistrate,  Buchanan,  pre- 
cipitated, as  all  know,  the  calamitous  Civil  War,  and,  by 
the  irony  of  Fate,  settled  not  only  the  distracting  contro- 
versy in  regard  to  State  Rights,  but  ultimately  the  great 
human  question  of  the  freedom  of  the  slave.  In  the  pre- 
ceding month  of  December,  South  Carolina  had  declared 
for  secession  and  dissolved  her  connection  with  the  Union, 
in  which  momentous  act  she  was  joined  before  March, 
1861,  by  six  other  States  (Alabama,  Georgia,  Mississippi, 
Florida,  Louisiana,  and  Texas)  ;  while  their  people  seized 
the  Federal  forts,  arsenals,  custom-houses,  post-offices,  and 
other  national  property  within  these  States  and  practically 
defied  its  constitutional  guardians.     Placing  themselves  thus 


90  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

outside  the  Union,  they  presently  elected  Jefferson  Davis 
president  of  what  was  styled  the  Southern  Confederacy, 
and  in  April  (a  month  after  Lincoln's  inauguration)  took  up 
the  weapons  of  war  and  with  them  bombarded  and  cap- 
tured Fort  Sumter,  in  Charleston  harbor.  This  aggres- 
sion by  the  Confederacy  while  for  the  moment  it  appalled 
the  North,  inflamed  its  people  to  almost  the  point  of  frenzy. 
The  retort  to  the  Southern  challenge  to  battle  was  the  in- 
stant call  by  President  Lincoln,  as  commander-in-chief,  for 
75,000  men  of  the  Union  militia — a  summons  that  was 
promptly  and  enthusiastically  responded  to.  In  the  procla- 
mation calling  for  additional  troops,  Lincoln,  while  demand- 
ing the  seceding  States  in  arms  to  disperse  and  retire  peace- 
ably to  their  hom.es  within  twenty  days,  at  the  same  time 
appealed  ''to  all  loyal  citizens  to  favor,  facilitate,  and  aid 
this  effort  to  maintain  the  honor,  the  integrity,  and  exist- 
ence of  our  national  Union,  and  the  perpetuity  of  popu- 
lar government,  and  to  redress  wrongs  already  long  enough 
endured." 

There  was  one  political  advantage  which  the  Lincoln 
administration  gained  by  Secession,  namely,  that  it  with- 
drew the  preponderating  influence  of  the  Southern  Demo- 
cratic representatives  from  the  House  of  Representatives 
and  the  Senate ;  while  in  a  large  measure  it  fused  in  these 
institutions  the  two  opposing  sections  of  the  Northern  Re- 
publicans and  united  them  in  support  of  the  government 
and  the  War.  At  first,  the  latter  did  not  at  once  come  to- 
gether in  their  design  to  coerce  the  South ;  indeed,  many 
leading  men  in  the  North  were,  for  a  while,  if  not  apathetic, 
dazed   by   the   grave   situation   and   peril   of   the   country; 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  9 1 

though  they  ere  long  reasserted  their  patriotism  and  raUied 
to  the  aid  of  the  Nation  and  its  administration.  The  latter, 
moreover,  was  by  this  time  organized,  and  Mr.  Lincoln 
had  succeeded  in  forming  a  strong  and  able  Cabinet ;  and 
this  had  its  influence  on  the  country  in  enabling  it  to  tackle 
the  great  task  before  it,  however  Httle  at  first  it  was  able  to 
accomplish  by  its  arms  in  the  field.  For  long,  indeed,  it 
was  a  time  of  sore  trial  to  the  North,  and  a  bitter  humili- 
ation that  so  little  was  effected  by  its  troops  in  coping  with 
the  enemy.  The  disaster  and  rout  of  Bull  Run  (July  21st) 
early  revealed  the  extent  of  the  demoralization  of  the  Union 
forces  at  the  outset  and  its  inadequacy  as  the  fighting  re- 
liance of  the  Nation.  Even  when  a  year  had  passed,  though 
the  army  had  been  recruited  to  over  200,000  men,  there  were 
no  decisive  results ;  while  still  darker  days  were  to  follow, 
and  much  inefficency  and  perplexity  to  come,  ere  any  ap- 
preciable gain  cheered  the  North  and  lifted  a  corner  of  the 
curtain  of  gloom.  Nor  did  matters  brighten  for  long,  what 
with  failures  and  other  experiments  in  the  chief  command 
of  the  army;  the  depreciation  ot  the  Federal  currency; 
and  with  the  adverse  attitude  of  foreign  powers  (chiefly 
Great  Britain  and  France)  in  according  belligerent  rights 
to  the  South,  and  having  to  surrender  the  Commissioners 
of  the  latter  to  England,  after  a  Northern  blockader  had 
taken  them  from  a  British  mail  steamer  on  the  high  seas. 
Nor  did  the  outlook  improve  even  with  the  change  of 
generals  in  command  of  the  army  of  the  Potomac  after  Mc- 
Dowell's disastrous  defeat  at  Bull  Run.  These  changes 
were  successively  from  McClellan  to  Pope,  and  after  the 
former  had  been  reinstated  to  his  subsequent  replacement 


9 2  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

by  Burnside,  who  at  length  gave  place  to  Hooker,  and 
Hooker  in  turn  gave  place  to  jMeade — all  of  them  inferior 
to,  or  at  least  less  successful,  than  the  great  Southern 
captains  in  the  war,  such  as  Lee,  Longstreet,  Johnston, 
Beauregard,  and  Stonewall  Jackson.  These  changes  and 
other  dispositions  in  the  chief  command  of  the  Northern 
forces  manifestly  were  a  great  concern  and  source  of  anx- 
iety to  Lincoln,  who,  at  this  era  and  throughout  the  war, 
assumed  the  burden  and  responsibility  of  them,  as  wtH 
as  of  the  other  heavy  cares  and  solicitudes  in  the  conduct  of 
affairs  through  the  trying  times  and  perplexities  of  the  era. 
Only  a  resolute,  patriotic  purpose  and  an  undaunted,  in- 
vincible spirit,  could  have  sustained  him  in  these  exacting, 
onerous  duties  amid  the  many  discouragements  and  sadden- 
ing military  reverses  that  marked  his  four  years  of  rule, 
to  the  collapse  of  the  rebellion  and  the  era  of  his  martyrdom. 
Nor  was  this  all  that  we  owe  the  mighty  chieftain  of  the  era 
— great  as  his  burden  of  exacting  work  and  care  was — in 
these  years  of  anxiety  and  prolonged  civil  strife;  for  we 
now  reach  the  period  when  Lincoln's  lofty  soul  yearned, 
and  his  sense  of  patriotic,  statesmanlike  duty  compelled 
him,  to  launch  that  immortal  edict  of  his  which  was  to 
liberate  the  abject  and  downtrodden  slave  and  extend  the 
blessed  reality,  as  well  as  the  beneficent  bounds,  of  free- 
dom to  all  men  throughout  the  I^nion.  Before  this,  com- 
pensated emancipation  had  been  honestly  proposed  and 
urged  by  the  great  Liberator ;  while  by  Ben  Butler's  thought- 
ful, humane  device,  the  escaping  slaves  had  been  relieved 
to  the  extent  of  being  decreed  '  contraband  of  war,"  ^nd 
thus  entitled  to  liberty  and  freedom  in  crossing  the  line  of 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  93 

strife.  But  both  of  these  ameliorations,  good  as  far  as  they 
went,  palled  before  the  great  Edict  of  Emancipation  itself 
— the  act  of  Lincoln  personally — and  to  him  alone  does 
the  country  and  the  world  owe  gratitude  and  praise  for  the 
magnanimity  of  the  measure,  the  relief  it  brought  to  the 
deserving  objects  of  it,  and  the  removal  forever  from  the 
nation  of  the  reproach  and  sin  involved  in  the  condition 
and  existence  of  slavery.  That  the  edict  of  Freedom  was 
"a  war  measure"  matters  little;  and  hardly  in  any  degree, 
if  at  all,  does  it  detract  from  the  honors  of  him  who  had 
long  entertained  the  hope  of  seeing  the  slave  attain  free- 
dom, and  who  now  was  happily  instrumental  in  bringing 
about  the  blessed  consummation. 

As  a  war  measure,  it  is  true,  Emancipation  was  benefi- 
cent and  effective,  for  it  touched  the  South  in  its  tenderest 
spot  and  gave  a  blow  to  the  State-Rights  doctrine,  so  dear 
to  the  Southern  and  Democratic  heart.  But  even  before 
the  issue  of  the  Edict  much  had  been  gained  by  the  North 
in  the  war,  for  New  Orleans  had  fallen  before  Farragut's 
fleet,  and  access  was  thus  gained  to  the  waters  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi, made  more  effective  by  the  possession  taken  by 
Halleck  of  Memphis  and  Corinth.  Grant  had  also  fought 
and  won  the  battle  of  Shiloh ;  Lee  had  been  repulsed  at  Alal- 
vern  Hill;  while  Richmond,  the  seat  of  the  Confederate 
capital,  had  been  seriously  threatened.  Following  the  is- 
sue and  enforcement  of  the  Edict  came  the  Federal  suc- 
cesses at  Gettysburg  and  Vicksburg;  the  capture  of  Fort 
Donnelson  on  the  Cumberland  river,  with  the  consequent 
surrender  of  Johnston's  and  Buckner's  forces ;  which  broke 
the   stubbornness   of   Southern  fighting,   soon  to  be  para- 


94  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

lized  by  the  victories  at  Chickamauga  and  Chattanooga, 
by  Sherman's  march  through  Georgia  and  his  clever  man- 
oeuvering  and  driving  out  the  enemy  from  the  Valley  of 
the  Shenandoah,  and  by  Grant's  destruction  of  Lee's  army, 
the  capture  of  Richmond,  and  the  final  surrender  at  Ap- 
pomattox. 

The  elation  in  the  North  due  to  this  auspicious  turn  of 
affairs  for  the  Union,  and  the  practical  close  of  the  long 
struggle,  were  an  immense  relief  to  Lincoln  as  well  as  to 
the  entire  Northern  and  Western  people,  soon  now  to  be- 
come again,  with  the  people  of  the  South,  a  peaceful  and 
reunited  nation.  The  cost  of  the  strife,  however,  was  tre- 
mendous— a  national  debt  contracted  of  over  3,000  million 
dollars,  and  the  loss  or  disablement  on  either  side  of  nearly 
half  a  million  men  each,  including  the  dire  slaughter  on  both 
sides  in  the  battles  of  the  Wilderness,  at  Spottsylvania 
Court  House,  and  at  Murfreesboro  and  Cold  Harbor.  The 
result  to  the  Federal  cause  had  been,  moreover,  at  the  cost 
of  disastrous  disturbance  to  the  commercial,  maritime,  and 
other  affairs  of  the  country,  besides  the  disorganization 
of  the  finances  and  the  great  depreciation  of  the 
currency,  in  spite  of  Secretary  Chase's  herculean  ef- 
fort to  control,  improve,  and  check  the  effect  of  this,  not  to 
speak  of  the  riots  over  the  drafts  of  men  needed  for  the 
recruitment  of  the  army  and  the  other  difficulties  of  enlist- 
ment. Much  of  the  anxiety  and  perplexity  of  all  this  natur- 
ally fell  heavily  upon  President  Lincoln,  in  addition  to  the 
oversight  and  supervision  he  was  called  upon  to  give  to  the 
army,  in  its  different  commands  in  the  field,  and  to  the  se- 
lection and  appointment  of  its  responsible  and  guiding  chiefs. 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  95 

For  this  illustrious  man,  who  throughout  showed  consum- 
mate tact  in  the  management  of  the  nation's  affairs — 
never  inclining  on  one  side  unduly  to  weakness  or  on  the 
other  to  the  usurpation  and  exercise  of  autocratic  author- 
ity— it  was  a  period  of  grave  trial,  with  continuous  strain- 
ing of  both  heart  and  head.  Alas !  that  the  end  to  him 
should  come  so  pitifully  and  tragically  after  all  he  had  suf- 
fered and  borne ! 

The  remaining  facts  of  importance  to  relate  in  this  ''true 
story  of  a  great  American"  may  be  briefly  narrated.  In 
the  autumn  of  1864,  the  North  re-elected  Lincoln  for  another 
period  of  rule,  and  showing  public  confidence  in  him  and  his 
administration  it  also  emphasized  the  national  will  to  prose- 
cute the  war  to  a  close.  Happily  the  prospect  of  ending 
the  conflict  was  now  good,  for  at  this  time  close  upon  a  mil- 
lion men  were  upon  the  Northern  muster  rolls,  while  the 
Southern  fighting  strength  was  greatly  reduced,  and  the 
shrunken  forces  under  Lee  and  Johnston  were  in  a  precari- 
ous position  and  in  actual  want  of  food.  The  gravity  of 
the  situation  soon  now  told  upon  the  Confederates,  men- 
anced  alike  by  circumstances  and  by  the  pressure  and  en- 
leagurement  of  Grant's  large  force,  aided  by  Sherman's 
cavalry.  The  closing  scene  finally  came  (April  9,  1865) 
at  Appomattox,  where  Lee  surrendered  the  army  of  North- 
ern Virginia  and  the  end  came  of  rebellion.  The  conditions 
imposed  upon  the  South  were  no  more  irksome  to  these 
combatants  than  the  laying  down  of  their  arms,  the  ceasing 
of  all  hostility,  and  the  restitution  to  the  Federal  power  of 
all  public  property.  Following  upon  this,  the  Confeder- 
ate President  and  Cabinet  abandoned  Richmond  for  Dan- 


96  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

ville,  and  Mr.  Davis  subsequently  fled  into  Georgia,  where 
he  was  captured  and  after  a  period  of  confinement  was, 
at  the  close  of  the  year  1868,  magnanimously  included  in 
a  general  amnesty  extended  to  all  who  had  taken  part  on 
the  side  of  Secession. 

In  startling  and  grim  contrast  to  the  peaceful  close  of  the 
great  struggle  at  Appomattox  came  the  event  which  was  to 
send  a  thrill  of  horror  and  pain  throughout  and  beyond 
the  confines  of  the  country.  Five  brief  days  after  Lee's 
surrender,  namely,  on  the  evening  of  Good  Friday,  April 
14th,  the  loved  President  Lincoln,  who,  since  the  evacua- 
tion of  Richmond  by  the  Confederate  administration,  had 
been  visiting  and  had  returned  to  Washington,  sat  with  his 
wife  in  a  box  to  witness  a  play  at  Ford's  theatre.  Here, 
in  the  fleeting  hour  of  social  relaxation  from  the  engrossing 
cares  of  office,  he  was  struck  down  by  the  murderous  hand  of 
an  assassin  and  died  on  the  following  morning.  Thus, 
by  the  weapon  of  "a.  demented  sympathizer  with  the  cause 
of  disunion,"  came  a  close  to  the  illustrous  career  of  the 
Great  Emancipator  and  his  departure  to  his  reward  in  the 
hither  eternal  world.  Amid  the  lamentations  and  regret 
of  the  stricken  nation  which  he  loved  and  died  for  came 
the  mighty  pageantries  which  marked  the  funeral  obse- 
quies of  the  martyred  one  and  the  sad  passing  of  his  remains 
to  their  last  resting-place  at  the  former  home  of  the  patriot 
President,  at  Springfield,  Illinois. 

In  a  sense,  Lincoln's  end  came  as  a  fitting  sequel  to,  and 
admonition  against,  Civil  War;  and  though  it  deprived  the 
nation  of  his  wise  counsels  in  the  great  work  that  lay  be- 
fore it  of  Reconstruction,  his  death  and  the  manner  of  it 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  97 

were  factors  of  value  in  hushing  all  criticism  of  the  man 
and  his  career,  while  raising  grateful  peans  to  his  memory. 
In  unity  well  might  the  two  sections  of  the  country,  now 
again  become  one,  pay  ceaseless  honor  to  him  who  had  had 
much  to  do,  through  the  long  and  appalling  conflict,  in 
bringing  about  the  happy  issue  of  Union,  and  who,  in  mem- 
orable words,  in  his  immortal  second  Inaugural,  after  be- 
moaning the  scourge  of  war  and  yet  foreseeing  its  close, 
had  admonished  the  Nation  to  have  "malice  toward  none," 
and  "with  charity  for  all,  with  firmness  in  the  right,  as 
God  gives  us  to  see  the  right,"  besought  them  to  "finish  the 
work  they  were  in,  to  bind  up  the  Nation's  wounds,  to  care 
for  him  who  shall  have  borne  the  battle,  and  for  his  widow 
and  his  orphans,  to  do  all  which  may  achieve  and  cherish 
a  just  and  lasting  peace  among  ourselves  and  with  all  na- 
tions." With  such  words  of  almost  inspired  wisdom  and 
beauty,  and  with  such  a  manifestation  of  kindly  and  thought- 
ful mood,  ever  customary  in  the  speaker,  we  may  take  leave 
of  our  subject  and  close  our  tribute  of  homage  to  the  great 
man. 


SUGGESTIONS    FROM    THE    LIFE   OF 
ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.* 

By  Prof.  Frantis  Wavi.and  Shepardson,  Ph.  D., 
University  of  Chicago. 

TWO  contradictory  tendencies  find  frequent  expression  in 
American  life.  The  one  is  a  disposition  to  hero-worship 
of  public  leaders ;  the  other  an  inclination  to  ridicule  and  be- 
little them.  The  first  is  due  partly  to  long  prevalent  meth- 
ods of  instruction,  and  partly  to  the  peculiar  conditions  of  ex- 
istence here.  The  second  results  partly  from  these  same  con- 
ditions and  partly  from  the  asperities  of  party  politics,  which 
have  encouraged  both  caricature  and  caustic  criticism. 

The  past  has  been  constantly  exalted.  We  have  been 
accustomed  to  look  backward  through  a  haze,  which  has  so 
distorted  our  vision  that  the  leaders  of  days  gone  by  have 
appeared  as  giants  looming  up  through  the  mists  of  years. 
This  continual  glorification  has  been  the  bane  of  all  instruc- 
tion. Environment  has  lent  its  powerful  aid  to  the  same 
end.  This  pre-eminently  is  the  land  of  opportunity.  The 
saying,  "Every  American  boy  expects  to  be  President,"  has 
sufficient  warrant  in  the  fact  that  several  very  unpromising 
American  boys  have  been  elevated  to  that  distinguished  po- 
sition. If  conditions  are  favorable,  a  moment  may  make 
an  American  one  of  the  Immortals.  Just  so  long  as  the 
starry  banner  waves  in  the  sky,  the  name  of  Lawrence  will 
be  revered,  because  of  those  heroic  words  he  uttered  as  he 
was  carried  from  the  deck  to  his  death  below,  "Don't  give 


•Originally  contributed.  Feb.  1899,  to  Self-Culture  Magazine,  G.  Mercer  Adam. 
Editor,  and  published  by  The  Werner  Co.,  Akron,  O. 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  99 

Up  the  ship!"  A  happy  word  at  the  right  instant,  an  op- 
portunity for  duty  seized,  an  act  of  heroism,  a  tragic  death, 
these  have  made  American  names  immortal. 

But  there  is  another  side.  All  is  not  glorification,  for 
one  failure  to  use  opportunity,  one  false  move,  one  sign  of 
weakness  at  a  critical  time,  has  doomed  a  whilom  hero  to 
the  prison  house  of  neglect  and  forgetfulness.  A  striking 
instance  is  that  of  Citizen  Genet,  who  basked  in  the  smiles 
of  an  enthusiastic  populace  now  a  century  ago.  For  a 
year  his  name  was  heard  everywhere;  then  he  was  forgot- 
ten. Only  the  special  student  of  American  history  knows, 
or  cares  to  know,  that  for  forty  years  after  his  ill-advised 
triumphal  advance  from  Charleston  to  Philadelphia,  he  lived 
in  the  United  States  as  a  common  private  citizen.  Equally 
suggestive  are  the  facts  about  Aaron  Burr,  who  had  thirty 
years  of  obscurity  after  his  trial  for  treason,  before  death 
came  to  take  him  from  a  land  which  had  once  shown  him 
honor.  These  cases  illustrate  the  second  American  tendency 
— to  disparage  and  belittle.  A  sentiment  which  applauds 
quickly  will  blame  with  equal  readiness  and  intensity.  What 
party  passion  does  not  accomplish,  personal  bitterness  will 
secure,  and  the  result  is  that  every  public  man  has  his  life  so 
carefully  scrutinized  with  microscopic  exactness,  that  every 
detail,  no  matter  how  personal  or  private,  is  brought  to  the 
light  to  satisfy  the  imperious  demands  of  a  scientific  age. 
The  wonder  increases,  that  anything  remains  to  be  praised, 
that  every  idol  is  not  thrown  down.  It  speaks  well  for  our 
leaders  that  so  many  of  them  have  come  out  of  this  search- 
ing examination  with  honor  and  increased  dignity. 

In  an  address  at  Vassar  College  a  few  years  ago,  a  well- 


lOO  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

known  Harvard  professor  mentioned  a  Christmas  card  which 
he  had  lately  seen  in  a  store  window  in  Cambridge.  It  had 
upon  it  the  pictures  of  Emerson,  Longfellow,  Lowell,  Whit- 
tier,  Hawthorne,  and  Holmes.  He  found  in  the  very  pic- 
tures a  sufficient  argument  for  the  existence  of  an  Ameri- 
can literature,  and  then  he  expressed  his  opinion  that  these 
men  and  their  writings  might  safely  be  left  to  posterity. 
"For,"  he  continued,  ''posterity  will  judge;  that  is  certain. 
It  will  judge,  too,  with  unthinking  impartiality — without 
acrimony,  without  tenderness.  What  mankind  wants  or 
needs  it  will  preserve  and  remember;  what  mankind  finds 
useless  it  will  cast  aside  and  forget.  That  is  what  makes 
the  past  heroic  to  all  eyes  not  unduly  sharpened  by  the  en- 
gines of  science.  *It  is  the  sin  and  the  tumult  and  the  pas- 
sion of  human  life  that  die.  Enthroned  in  art  the  beauty  of 
the  old  days  lives,  and  it  will  live  forever.'  And  although 
science  nowadays  teaches  us  the  suggestive  truth  that  the 
old  days  which  we  have  reverenced  were,  after  all,  when 
the  sun  still  shone  on  them,  days  of  turbulence  and  wicked- 
ness, disheartening  as  any  that  surges  about  us  now,  that 
same  science,  one  often  thinks,  is  prone  to  forget  the  deep 
law  of  human  nature,  which  makes  each  generation,  in  the 
end,  remember  instinctively,  of  those  that  are  gone  before, 
only  or  chiefly  those  traits  and  deeds  which  shall  add  to  the 
wisdom  and  power  of  humanity." 

No  other  public  man  in  American  history  affords  such 
opportunities  for  study  as  are  presented  in  the  life  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln.  His  lowly  origin,  his  meteoric  career,  his 
tragic  death — these  yield  ample  materials  for  artist  and  poet 
and  writer.     From  every  hidden  nook  and  corner  of  the 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  lOI 

western  world  eager  hands  are  drawing  forth  the  details'  of 
his  life,  and  with  every  added  bit  of  information  the  mystery 
of  his  existence  becomes  the  more  complex  and  inexplicable. 
Henry  Watterson  uses  words  full  of  meaning,  when  he 
says :  "A  thousand  years  hence,  no  story,  no  tragedy,  no 
epic  poem  will  be  filled  with  greater  wonder,  or  be  followed 
by  mankind  with  deeper  feeling,  than  that  which  tells  of  his 
[Lincoln's]  life  and  death." 

The  constant  tendency  toward  glorification  already  men- 
tioned, and  in  this  special  case  the  added  inclination  to 
deification,  renders  the  task  difficult,  indeed,  for  him  who 
attempts  in  a  brief  chapter  to  tell  what  the  life  of  Abraham 
Lincoln  means  to  the  American  of  to-day. 

The  names  of  great  Americans  are  associated  with  great 
ideas  or  movements.  The  majority  link  the  name  of  Alex- 
ander Hamilton  with  federal  finances,  overlooking  his  great 
influence  in  the  building  up  of  the  central  government  and 
his  determined  stand  for  that  central  authority  as  against 
the  individual  state.  So,  likewise,  the  name  of  Calhoun  will 
go  down  to  the  coming  ages  as  the  synonym  for  Nullifica- 
tion, much  to  the  prejudice  of  the  historic  influence  of  that 
distinguished  statesman.  In  every  case  that  might  be  men- 
tioned, the  central  idea  obscures  the  many  other  features  of 
a  life  full  of  illustration  of  phases  of  American  develop- 
ment. 

In  the  case  of  Abraham  Lincoln  the  crowning  thought 
always  will  be  the  emancipation  of  the  slave,  and  yet  it  is 
worth  while  considering  whether,  as  the  years  go  by  and  the 
wonderful  life  is  studied  again  and  again,  other  features  than 
this  most  dramatic  one  may  not  be  chosen  in  real  explana- 


io2  Ar.kAiiAM   Lincoln. 

tion  of  the  power  of  this  leader  over  the  minds  and  hearts 
of  American  citizens.  Certainly  Mr.  Lowell  had  something 
else  in  mind  than  praise  for  the  Emancipator,  when  he 
phrased  his  "Commemoration  Ode"  and  called  Abraham 
Lincoln  "the  first  American." 

\Mien  the  thought  of  emancipation  first  came  into  the 
mind  of  Mr.  Lincoln  it  is  difficult  to  determine.  The  icono- 
clastic scientific  student  casts  discredit  upon  many  of  the 
tales  which  have  been  told  about  his  boyhood.  Especially 
desirable  would  it  be  that  one  story  might  be  retained.  Ac- 
cording to  that,  one  day,  in  the  spring  of  1831,  two  youths 
might  have  been  seen  wandering  about  the  streets  of  that 
quaint  southern  city  of  New  Orleans.  In  age  and  stature 
they  were  men,  but  in  knowledge  of  the  world  they  were 
mere  children.  They  had  come  down  the  river  from  their 
home  in  Illinois,  bringing  a  flat-boat  loaded  with  pork  and 
beef.  They  wondered  much  as  they  saw  the  sights  of 
the  busy  southern  city,  the  centre  of  all  the  trade  of  the 
West  and  South,  and  gained  a  glimpse  of  a  life  so  differ- 
ent from  that  of  the  simple  quiet  of  their  prairie  home. 

Among  other  places  visited  vvas  the  slave-rnart,  and  there 
for  the  first  time  they  were  brought  face  to  face  with  the 
evils  of  human  slavery,  as  they  saw  men  and  women,  boys 
and  girls,  sold  like  cattle,  and  heard  the  sad  cry  of  the 
mother  as  the  child  was  taken  away,  or  the  mournful 
lamentation  of  the  father  as  he  realized  that  he  was  to  be 
separated  from  his  loved  ones.  The  coarse  remarks  of  the 
rude  overseers  grated  harshly  upon  their  ears,  and  as  they 
turned  away  from  the  accursed  spot  and  hurried  out  into  the 
pure  sunlight,  one  of  them,  wnth  quivering  lip  and  clenched 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  I03 

fist,  said  to  his  companion :  "Jo^"*  i^  I  ^ver  get  a  chance 
to  hit  that  institution,  I'll  hit  it  hard,  by  the  Eternal  God !" 

The  closing  cry  of  the  auctioneer,  *'Going,  going,  gone," 
echoing  from  the  walls  of  the  slave  market,  seemed  to  come 
as  a  mocking  defiance  of  the  poor  Illinois  boatman, — half 
horse,  half  alligator  they  used  to  call  such  as  he,^— who  had 
just  uttered  such  portentous  words.  This  young  man  from 
Illinois,  all  through  his  life,  was  to  be  a  believer  in  dreams 
and  omens.  Many  a  time  in  his  boyhood  and  youth  he  is 
said  to  have  declared  that  he  was  going  to  be  President  of 
the  United  States,  and  over  and  over  again  during  the 
years  at  the  White  House  he  felt  the  premonitions  of  his 
sad  end.  Perhaps  even  at  this  m_oment  his  soul  had  som.e 
mysterious  communication  with  the  supernatural,  as  he  lived 
the  future  in  the  present,  and  felt  rising  within  him  that 
spirit  which  in  later  years  was  to  lead  to  the  Emancipation 
Proclamation  and  crown  his  life  with  oflorv. 

Every  time  he  went  near  the  borderland  between  freedom 
and  slavery,  his  heart  was  saddened  by  the  sight  of  slaves 
toiling  on  the  plantations,  working  upon  the  levees,  or,  per- 
haps, shackled  in  irons,  on  their  way  to  the  auction  block. 
Such  sights  were  "continual  torment"  to  him,  so  he  after- 
wards wrote  to  a  friend.  But  no  opportunity  came  to  him 
to  strike  any  blow  against  slavery,  until  in  1837,  being  then 
a  member  of  the  Illinois  assembly,  he  joined  a  fellow-mem- 
ber in  a  protest  against  a  resolution  on  slavery,  which  was 
probably  designed  to  mollify  those  who  had  been  disturbed 
by  the  development  of  anti-slavery  feeling.  The  language 
of  this  protest  makes  dull  reading  now,  but  it  took  courage 
for  anyone   in   that   time,    when   slavery   interests   were   so 


I04  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

powerful,  especially  for  one  who  had  political  aspirations, 
to  declare  that  *'the  institution  of  slavery  is  founded  both  on 
injustice  and  bad  policy." 

The  idea  of  colonization  may  have  taken  root  in  his  mind 
because  of  his  regard  for  Henry  Clay.  At  one  time  he 
travelled  to  Kentucky  to  hear  this  Whig  leader,  and  although 
he  found  his  former  idol  shattered,  after  he  had  listened  to 
an  indifferent  speech  and  had  received  somewhat  cavalier 
treatment,  yet  this  episode  perhaps  had  a  formative  influ- 
ence in  his  anti-slavery  development.  Being  elected  to 
Congress  during  the  height  of  the  Mexican  discussions,  Mr. 
Lincoln  showed  few  qualities  of  leadership,  but  manifested 
his  opposition  to  the  slave  interest  by  frequent  votes  for  the 
principle  of  the  Wilmot  Proviso,  as  well  as  by  the  introduc- 
tion of  a  bill  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of 
Columbia.  This  bill,  moderate  enough  from  a  present  day 
standpoint,  aroused  intense  antagonism  at  the  time,  and 
although  it  never  came  to  a  vote,  it  is  interesting  as  show- 
ing the  position  of  Mr.  Lincoln  twelve  years  before  he  went 
to  Washington  as  President. 

A  few  years  passed  by  with  the  future  Emancipator  work- 
ing as  a  lawyer  in  Springfield,  111.  Then  the  full  meaning 
of  the  Compromise  of  1850  broke  upon  the  people  of  the 
North,  and  a  new  party  was  formed,  the  ''Anti-Nebraska" 
men,  of  whom  Abraham  Lincoln  was  a  local  leader  in  his 
State.  His  ready  wit  and  stump-speaking  ability  gave  him 
increasing  prominence.  The  Anti-Nebraska  men  secured 
control  of  the  lower  House  of  Congress.  Then  they  organ- 
ized a  new  political  party  on  broad  construction  princi- 
ples, a  party  which  inherited  the  desires  of  the  Whigs  for  a 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  1 05 

protective  tariff  and  internal  improvements,  and  added  the 
new  principle,  that  the  Federal  Government  had  the  right 
to  control  slavery  in  the  Territories. 

This  was  the  foundation-stone  of  the  Republican  party 
— non-extension  of  slavery  into  the  Territories.  The  hetero- 
geneous combination  of  men  of  varying  views  was  not 
formed  to  secure  abolition,  but  restriction.  Old  line  Whigs, 
who  had  forsaken  their  party  because  it  would  take  no  pro- 
nounced position  on  slavery ;  the  new  Whigs,  led  by  Wil- 
liam H.  Seward,  who  came  into  the  party  after  the  Com- 
promise of  1850;  the  Know-Nothings,  who  had  trieS  to 
create  new  issues  when  there  was  but  one ;  the  Free-Soilers, 
who  despaired  of  success  because  of  the  too  radical  Aboli- 
tionists ;  and  Northern  Democrats,  who  resented  the  conFrol 
of  their  party  by  the  Southern  slavemasters, — all  these  ele- 
ments came  together  to  support  the  old  Free-Soil  conten- 
tion, "No  more  slave  States.  No  more  slave  Territories!" 
The  institution  of  slavery  was  hateful  to  many  of  them,  but 
they  were  not  ready  as  yet  to  demand  its  abolition  in  that 
region  where  for  so  long  a  time  it  had  made  its  home.  The 
radicals  were  not  satisfied  with  the  platform,  but  the  ma- 
jority of  anti-slavery  men  voted  for  Fremont,  who  received 
1,300,000  ballots,  114  electoral  votes,  and  was  defeated  only 
by  a  few  of  the  accidents  of  politics. 

At  the  first  national  convention  of  this  party,  when  Fre- 
mont was  selected  for  the  candidate,  Abraham  Lincoln  had  a 
good  following  for  the  second  place,  but  his  fame  was 
chiefly  local,  until  he  entered  upon  the  celebrated  debate  with 
Stephen  A.  Douglas,  gaining  national  reputation  from  be- 
ing pitted  against  the  distinguished  leader  of  the  Northern 


Io6  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

Democracy.  Then  his  life-current  began  to  move  more 
rapidly.  A  visit  through  the  Northern  cities,  a  peculiar 
turn  in  the  affairs  of  a  great  nominating  convention,  and 
the  awkward  rail-splitter  was  the  candidate  of  the  Republi- 
can party  for  President  of  the  United  States.  The  Demo- 
cratic party,  still  strong  enough  to  win  many  a  fight,  became 
hopelessly  divided.  There  was  an  election  of  intense  excite- 
ment, and  the  party  which  declared  that  the  normal  condition 
of  all  the  territory  of  the  Union  was  that  of  freedom  won 
the  day.  Abraham  Lincoln,  inexperienced  in  public  affairs, 
was  President.  The  orators  ridiculed  him. ;  polite  society 
scoffed  at  him;  the  newspapers  lampooned  him;  his  party 
leaders,  who  knew  him  not,  despised  his  abilities ;  seven 
States  rebelled  before  he  could  be  inaugurated ;  the  belief  of 
the  North  that  disunion  was  only  a  threat  was  proved  false, 
and  yet  some  cried  loudly  against  coercion ;  foreign  influ- 
ence seemed  about  to  favor  the  Southern  Confederacv ; 
there  was  no  encouragement  for  him  but  the  cries  of  the 
radical  anti-slavery  people,  some  of  whom  wished  the  ''way- 
ward sisters"  to  depart  in  peace.  Such  was  the  distressing 
condition  of  affairs  when  Abraham  Lincoln  left  his  neigh- 
bors in  Springfield,  to  undertake  what  he  declared -to  be 
a  more  difficult  task  than  Washington  had  had,  and  secretly 
entered  the  capital  city,  to  begin  his  long  and  troubled  ca- 
reer as  chief  executive  of  the  nation. 

The  war  was  begun  with  the  views  of  Mr.  Lincoln  un- 
changed. He  believed  that  the  end  of  slavery  was  near, 
no  matter  what  effect  the  war  might  have  upon  it.  *T  am 
naturally  anti-slavery,"  he  said.  'Tf  slavery  is  not  wrong, 
nothing  is  wrong.     I  cannot  remember  the  time  when  I  did 


Abraham  Lincoln.  107 

not  so  think  and  so  feel.  And  yet  I  have  never  understood 
that  the  presidency  conferred  upon  me  an  unrestricted  right 
to  act  upon  that  judgment  and  feeHng.  It  was  in  the  oath  I 
took,  that  I  would  to  the  best  of  my  ability  preserve,  protect, 
and  defend  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  I  could 
not  take  the  office  without  taking  the  oath.  Nor  was  it  in 
my  view  that  I  might  take  an  oath  to  get  power,  and  break 
the  oath  in  using  that  power.  I  understood,  too,  that  in 
ordinary  civil  administration  this  oath  forbade  me  practically 
to  indulge  my  private  abstract  judgment  on  the  moral  ques- 
tion of  slavery.  I  did  understand,  however,  also,  that  my 
oath  imposed  upon  nije  the  duty  of  preserving  to  the  best 
of  my  ability,  by  every  indispensable  means,  that  govern- 
ment, that  nation,  of  which  the  Constitution  was  the  organic 
law.  I  could  not  feel  that,  to  the  best  of  my  ability,  I  had 
even  tried  to  preserve  the  Constitution,  if,  to  save  slavery 
or  any  minor  matter,  I  should  permit  the  wreck  of  govern- 
ment, country,  and  the  Constitution  altogether." 

The  time  had  not  come  for  him  to  fulminate  his  decree. 
There  were  many  who  would  fight  to  sustain  the  Union, 
who  would  not  engage  in  a  war  for  the  abolition  of  slavery. 
The  President  recognized  this  fact,  and  waited.  Some- 
times to  the  radicals  he  seemed  to  be  taking  backward  steps, 
as,  for  example,  when  he  kept  Union  generals  from  free- 
ing the  slaves.  But  his  purpose  was  fixed.  He  early  saw 
that  the  recognition  of  the  Southern  Confederacy  by  foreign 
nations  would  never  come,  if  the  war  were  to  be  given  an 
anti-slavery  cast.  No  civilized  nation  in  the  world  would 
recognize  a  country  which  had  for  its  main  pillar  an  insti- 
tution which  was  held  in  horror  by  the  most  of  mankind. 


Io8  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

Yet  all  the  time  disaster  was  following  disaster  to  the  Union 
cause.  Everything-  looked  black  for  the  Northern  armies. 
Some  great  act  must  be  done  to  stimulate  the  people.  Some- 
thing must  be  done  at  once  to  arouse  them  to  the  situation. 

But  it  was  a  surprise  to  Mr.  Seward  and  other  members 
of  the  cabinet,  when  in  July,  1862,  the  President  presented 
them  with  a  draft  of  a  proclamation,  declaring  the  negroes 
free  in  every  state  that  should  be  in  open  rebellion  on  the  first 
of  January,  1863.  He  seemed  determined  to  issue  it  at 
once.  Mr.  Seward  showed  him  that  it  would  seem  like  a 
wail  from  a  badly  beaten  party,  and  urged  that  its  publica- 
tion be  delayed  until  victory  had  turned  its  tide  toward 
the  Union  forces.  The  President  accepted  the  suggestion 
and  laid  the  paper  away.  The  invading  hosts  of  the  South 
came  into  Maryland,  and  then  Mr.  Lincoln  resolved  that 
victory  of  the  Union  forces  should  be  the  signal  for  his 
proclamation.  The  battle  of  Antietam  came  on  the  seven- 
tenth  of  September,  and  five  days  later  the  world  was  given 
an  electric  shock  of  surprise,  when  the  great  Emancipation 
Proclamation  appeared,  proving  in  the  long  run  the  last 
blow  to  the  cause  of  slavery,  and  striking  the  shackles  from 
millions  of  human  beings  who  had  grown  up  in  bondage 
in  the  land  of  boasted  freedom. 

There  were  some  voices  of  dissent ;  there  was  much 
talk  of  an  "abolition  war" ;  there  were  to  be  many  days  and 
weeks  and  months  of  weary  longing  for  peace ;  but  the  work 
of  Abraham  Lincoln  in  the  slavery  matter  was  practically 
finished  when  he  affixed  his  signature  to  this  great  charter 
of  liberties.  'T  had  made  a  vow,  a  covenant,  that  if  God 
should  give  us  victory  in  battle,  I  would  consider  it  as  an 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  1 09 

indication  of  divine  will,  and  that  it  would  be  my  duty  to 
move  forward  with  emancipation.  God  has  decided  the 
matter  in  favor  of  the  slaves.  I  am  satisfied  that  I  took  the 
right  course." 

Thus,  at  last,  the  boy  of  1831  had  had  a  chance  to  hit 
''that  institution,"  and  he  had  hit  it  hard. 

If  Mr.  Lincoln's  life  had  closed  then,  he  woitld  still  have 
earned  a  place  among  the  heroes  of  the  nation.  But  the 
tragic  termination  of  his  career  no  doubt  had  great  influence 
in  making  his  name  a  household  word.  To  many  there 
was  recalled  the  picture  of  Moses,  who  had  led  his  people 
out  of  bondage  and  up  to  the  borders  of  the  promised  land 
of  freedom,  into  which,  however,  he  himself  was  not  allowed 
to  go.  Never  in  the  world's  history  was  there  such  a  dra- 
matic ending  of  a  great  life.  The  real  root  of  internal  dif- 
ficulty had  been  discovered  and  destroyed.  The  armies 
were  ready  for  dissolution  into  the  ranks  of  private  citizen- 
ship. Peace  had  come  with  its  sweetening  influence.  What 
remained  was  to  bind  up  the  wounds,  and  this  might  safely 
be  trusted  to  the  man  who  had  stretched  out  his  hands  in 
tender  entreaty  a  few  years  before,  when  he  said:  *'We 
are  not  enemies,  but  friends.  We  must  not  be  enemies. 
Though  passion  may  have  strained,  it  must  not  break  our 
bonds  of  affection.  The  mystic  chords  of  memory,  stretch- 
ing from  every  battlefield  and  patriot  grave  all  over  this 
broad  land,  will  yet  swell  the  chorus  of  the  Union,  when 
again  touched,  as  surely  they  will  be,  by  the  better  angels 
of  our  nature." 

Then  the  blow  fell.  It  was  swift;  it  was  terrible.  It 
was  hard  to  bear.     It  could  not  be  understood.     "Grief  and 


no  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

a  vague  desire  for  revenge  for  this  cruel  and  needless  crime 
struggled  for  mastery.  This  was  the  feeling  all  over  the 
country,  when  the  heavy  tidings  of  the  foul  and  most  un- 
natural murder  went  forth  over  the  length  and  breadth 
of  the  land.  Flags  that  had  been  flying  in  triumph  were 
lowered  to  half-mast  in  sorrow.  It  is  not  a  stretch  of  the 
imagination  to  say  that  a  great  wave  of  lamentation,  spon- 
taneous and  exceeding  bitter,  swept  over  the  Republic.  Bells 
were  tolled  and  minute  guns  were  fired.  For  days  all 
ordinary  business,  except  that  of  the  most  imperative  import- 
ance, was  practically  suspended,  and  the  nation  seemed 
abandoned  to  its  mighty  grief." 

No  one  could  understand  it  then ;  no  one  can  understand 
it  now.  Perhaps,  while  the  whole  world  wept  with  us  over 
Abraham  Lincoln's  bier,  the  broken  bands  of  Union  were 
drawn  closer  together  in  a  ministry  of  sorrow.  Perhaps 
the  hand  of  the  assassin  saved  this  President  from  the  dif- 
ficulties which  beset  his  successor,  difficulties  with  leaders 
of  his  party  which  might  have  lessened  the  influence  rightly 
earned  by  his  noble  Proclamation.  It  is  idle  to  speculate, 
and  in  the  gloom  of  that  dark  April  morning  the  martyred 
President  must  be  left,  wrapped  in  that  same  mystery,  which 
attends  his  whole  career,  as  one  attempts  to  tell  the  story 
of  his  wonderful  life. 

Comparisons  are  unfair  where  conditions  are  dissimi- 
lar, and  yet  the  temptation  is  always  strong  to  compare  the 
two  great  leaders  whose  births  came  in  February,  and  who 
stand  at  the  head  of  American  statesmen.  Such  compari- 
son is  courted  by  the  words  of  Mr.  Lowell's  ''Commemora- 
tion Ode"  already  quoted.     And  perhaps  comparison  will 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  1  1 1 

show  a  helpful  suggestion  from  the  life  of  Abraham  Lin- 
coln, a  suggestion  why,  perhaps,  he  holds  so  high  a  place 
in  the  hearts  of  his  countrymen. 

One  picture  of  the  boyhood  of  Mr.  Lincoln  shows  "a 
very  tall  rawboned  youth,  with  large  features,  dark  shrivel- 
led skin,  and  rebellious  hair ;  his  arms  and  legs  long  and  out 
of  proportion ;  clad  in  deerskin  trousers,  which,  from  fre- 
quent exposure  to  the  rain,  had  shrunk  so  as  to  sit  tightly  on 
his  limbs,  leaving  several  inches  of  bluish  skin  exposed  be- 
tween their  lower  end  and  the  heavy  tan-colored  shoes ; 
the  nether  garment  held  usually  by  only  one  suspender,  that 
was  strung  over  a  coarse  home-made  shirt ;  the  head  covered 
in  winter  with  a  coon-skin  cap,  in  summer  with  rough  straw 
hat  of  uncertain  shape,  without  a  band."  Such  was  the 
overgrown  youth  who  made  his  way  through  life  as  best  he 
might,  a  general  helper,  a  boatman,  a  country  store  clerk, 
until  his  homely  wit,  his  keenness  of  judgment,  and  his 
clearness  of  view  made  hirn  a  local  celebrity. 

Years  before  in  our  history  a  boy  had  spent  his  early 
life  in  tlie  wilderness.  Tall  and  strong-limbed,  active  and 
agile,  he  had  tramped  through  the  forests  of  Virginia  as 
a  surveyor ;  he  had  learned  the  arts  of  woodcraft ;  he  had 
become  familiar  with  the  habits  of  the  red  men ;  he  had 
observed  the  fighting  qualities  of  his  countrymen ;  and  wlien 
the  time  came  he  stepped  forward,  armed  and  equipped,  his 
w^hole  training  apparently  fitting  him  to  lead  his  fellows 
through  the  trying  period  of  national  infancy.  The 
thoughtful  student  of  American  history  believes  that  George 
Washington  was  prepared  in  ways  that  he  knew  not  to  be 
the  leader  in  the  Revolution.     The  same  thoughtful  student 


I  I  2  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

must  find  the  guiding  hand  in  the  backwoods'  boyhood  and 
youth  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  \Miy  may  we  not  beheve  that 
the  squalor  and  penury  of  his  early  days  were  his  to  make 
him  tender  toward  the  lowly  and  the  suffering,  and  that  the 
hard  blows  of  circumstance  which  developed  his  giant  frame 
were  to  strengthen  the  great  shoulders  for  the  time  when 
they  were  to  bear  the  worry  and  the  woes  of  the  nation  ? 
We  may  well  question  whether  the  son  of  opulence,  the 
old  Virginia  child  of  fortune,  could  have  had  his  heart 
stirred  by  the  wail  from  the  cabin  of  the  slave,  as  was  the 
heart  of  the  child  of  new  Virginia,  who  had  walked  in  the 
paths  of  poverty  and  privation.  Each  had  his  peculiar  mis- 
sion ;  the  one  to  lead,  when  the  world  knew  only  the  power 
of  royalty;  the  other  to  prove  the  grandest  type  of  a  new 
democracy,  which  elevates  its  servants  sometimes  from 
the  lowest  depths  of  despair  to  the  highest  pinnacles  of 
power.  These  men  represented  two  distinct  types  of  Am- 
erican life.  The  aristocratic  country  gentlemen,  with  well- 
filled  purse,  with  rotund  face,  with  velvet  clothes,  was  the 
best  representative  of  the  life  of  the  eighteenth  century. 
The  lank  lawyer  of  the  prairies,  v/ith  face  furrowed  with 
care,  without  family  tradition  of  greatness,  a  self-made  man, 
is  the  ideal  of  the  nineteenth. 

When  Washington  ruled  it  was  an  age  of  privilege;  it 
was  an  age  of  aristocracy.  Then  only  the  favored  ones 
controlled  affairs  of  state,  only  the  few  ruled  the  many.  Now 
it  is  an  age  of  democracy,  where  the  very  humblest  may 
aspire.  No  longer  is  the  popular  ideal  the  man  in  knee- 
breeches  and  rufifled  shirt,  who  was  chosen  for  the  first  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States  at  the  end  of  the  old  regime,  but 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  1  I  3 

the  "miU-boy  of  the  slashes,"  the  "hero  of  Tippecanoe,"  the 
"hero  of  New  Orleans,"  the  *'canal-boat  mule  driver,"  and 
greatest  of  all,  "Honest  Old  Abe,  the  rail-splitter  of  Illi- 
nois,"— men  who  are  popular  heroes  because  they  had  lit- 
tle sympathy  with  forms  or  ceremonies,  and  believed  one 
man  to  be  just  as  good  as  another. 

A  generation  has  passed  since  Abraham  Lincoln  died. 
Already  he  has  been  clothed  with  such  romance,  that  the 
more  light  there  is  shed  upon  his  life,  the  more  difficult  its 
interpretation  becomes.  That  he  will  always  be  associated 
with  the  great  charter  of  freedom  for  the  slave  is  certain. 
That  his  tragic  death  will  always  lend  additional  halo  to 
his  name  seems  likely.  And  yet,  more  satisfactory  expla- 
nation of  his  popularity  may,  perhaps,  be  found  in  the  fact 
that  he  always  kept  close  to  the  plain  people,  whom  he  so 
often  mentioned,  for  he  was  a  man  "whose  meek  flock  the 
people  joyed  to  be,  not  lured  by  any  cheat  of  birth,  but  by 
his  clear-grained  human  worth,  and  brave  old  wisdom  of 
sincerity." 


EARLY  YEARS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN* 

By  GOLDWIN  SMITH,  D.C.L.  (Oxon),  Ex-Professor  of  Consti- 
tutional History,  Cornell  University,  N.  Y. 

Our  readers  need  not  be  afraid  that  we  are  going  to  bore 
them  with  the  Slavery  Question  or  the  Civil  War.  We 
deal  here  not  with  the  Martyr  President,  but  with  Lincoln 
in  embryo,  leaving  the  great  man  at  the  entrance  of  the 
grand  scene. 

After  the  murder,  criticism,  of  course,  was  for  a  time 
impossible.  Martyrdom  was/  followed  by  canonization,  and 
the  popular  heart  could  not  be  blamed  for  overflowing  in 
hyperbole.  The  fallen  chief  "was  Washington,  he  was  Mo- 
ses, and  there  were  not  wanting  even  those  who  likened 
him  to  the  God  and  Redeemer  of  all  the  earth.  These  latter 
thought  they  discovered  in  his  early  origin,  his  kindly 
nature,  his  benevolent  precepts,  and  the  homely  anecdotes 
in  which  he  taught  the  people,  strong  points  of  resemblance 
between  him  and  the  Divine  Son  of  Mary.''  A  halo  of 
myth  naturally  gathered  around  the  cradle  of  this  new 
Moses.  Among  other  fables,  it  was  believed  that  the  Presi- 
dent's family  had  fled  from  Kentucky  to  Indiana  to  escape 
the  taint  of  Slavery.  Thomas  Lincoln,  the  father  of  Abra- 
ham, was  migratory  enough,  but  the  course  of  his  migra- 
tions was  not  determined  by  high  moral  motives,  and  we 
may  safely  affirm  that  had  he  ever  found  himself  among 
the  fleshpots  of  Egypt,  he  would  have  stayed  there,  how- 


*By  Permission,  from  " Self-CuHure"  Magazine.  Edited  by  O.  Mercer  Adam. 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  I  l  5 

ever  deep  the  moral  darkness  might  have  been.  He  was  a 
thriftless  '*ne'er  do  vveel,"  who  had  very  commonplace  rea- 
sons for  wandering  away  from  the  miserable,  solitary  farm 
in  Kentucky,  on  which  his  child  first  formed  a  sad  acquaint- 
ance with  life  and  nature,  and  which,  as  it  happened,  was 
not  in  the  slave-owning  region  of  the  State.  His  decision 
appears  to  have  been  hastened  by  a  "difficulty"  he  got  into, 
which  is  set  forth  in  one  of  the  biographies  of  his  son,  to 
which  we  are  indebted  for  many  of  the  facts  in  this  paper.* 

Lincoln  senior  drifted  to  Indiana,  and  in  a  spot  which  was 
then  an  almost  untrodden  wilderness  built  a  casa  sania, 
which  liis  connection,  Dennis  Hanks,  calls  "that  darned 
little  half- faced  camp" — a  dwelling  enclosed  on  three  sides 
and  open  on  the  fourth,  without  a  floor,  and  called  a  camp, 
it  seems,  because  it  was  made  of  poles,  not  of  logs.  He 
afterwards  exchanged  the  "camp"  for  the  more  ambitious 
"cabin ;"  but  his  cabin  was  "a  rough,  rough  log  one,"  made 
of  unhewn  timber,  and  without  floor,  door,  or  window. 
In  this  "rough,  rough"  abode,  his  lanky,  lean-visaged,  awk- 
ward and  somewhat  pensive,  though  strong,  hearty  and 
patient  son  Abraham  had  a  "rough,  rough"  life,  and  under- 
went experiences  which,  if  they  were  not  calculated  to  form 
a  Pitt  or  a  Turgot,  were  calculated  to  season  a  politician, 
and  make  him  a  winner  in  the  tough  struggle  for  existence, 
as  well  as  to  identify  him  with  the  people,  faithful  repres- 
entation of  whose  aims,  sentiments,  tastes,  passions  and 
prejudices  was  the  one  thing  needful  to  qualify  him  for 
obtaining  the  prize  of  his  ambition. 

"For  two  years  Lincoln  (the  father)  continued  to  live 
alone  in  the  old  wav.     Lie  did  not  like  to  farm,  and  he  never 


Il6  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

got  much  of  his  land  under  cultivation.  His  principal  crop 
was  corn ;  and  this,  with  the  game  which  a  rifleman  so  ex- 
pert would  easily  take  from  the  woods  around  him,  supplied 
his  table."  It  does  not  appear  that  he  employed  any  of 
his  mechanical  skill  in  completing  and  furnishing  his  own 
cabin.  It  has  already  been  stated  that  the  latter  had  no 
window,  door  or  floor.  The  son  slept  in  the  loft,  "to  which 
he  ascended  by  means  of  pins  driven  into  holes  in  the  wall." 

Of  his  father's  disposition,  Abraham  seems  to  have  in- 
herited at  all  events  the  dislike  to  labor,  though  his  sounder 
moral  nature  prevented  him  from  being  an  idler.  His  ten- 
dency to  politics  came  from  the  same  element  of  character 
as  his  father's  preference  for  the  rifle.  In  after-life,  we  are 
told,  his  mind  ''was  filled  with  gloomy  forebodings  and 
strong  apprehensions  of  impending  evil,  mingled  with 
extravagant  visions  of  personal  grandeur  and  power." 
His  melancholy,  characterized  by  all  his  friends  as  "terrible," 
was  closely  connected  with  the  cravings  of  his  demagogic 
ambition,  and  the  root  of  both  was  in  him  from  a  boy. 

In  the  Indiana  cabin  Abraham's  mother,  whose  maiden 
name  was  Nancy  Hanks,  died,  far  from  medical  aid,  of  the 
epidemic  called  milk  sickness.  She  was  preceded  in  death 
by  her  relatives,  the  Sparrows,  who  had  succeeded  the 
Lincolns  in  the  "camp,"  and  by  many  neighbors,  whose 
coffins  Thomas  Lincoln  made  out  of  "green  lumber  cut  with 
a  whip-saw."  Upon  Nancy's  death  he  took  to  his  green 
lumber  again  and  made  a  box  for  her.  "There  were  about 
twenty  persons  at  her  funeral.  They  took  her  to  the  sum- 
mit of  a  deeply  wooded  knoll,  about  half  a  mile  southeast 
of  the  cabin,  and  laid  her  beside  the  Sparrows.  If  there 
were  any  burial  ceremonies,  they  were  of  the  briefest.     The 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  II7 

great  trees  were  originally  cut  away  to  make  a  small  cleared 
space  for  this  primitive  graveyard;  but  the  young  dog- 
woods have  sprung  up  unopposed  in  great  luxuriance,  and 
in  many  instances  the  names  of  pilgrims  to  the  burial  place 
of  the  great  Abraham  Lincoln's  mother  are  carved  on  their 
bark.  With  this  exception,  the  spot  is  wholly  unmarked. 
The  grave  never  had  a  stone,  nor  even  a  board,  at  its  head 
or  its  foot;  and  the  neighbors  still  dispute  as  to  which  of 
these  unsightly  hollows  contains  the  ashes  of  Nancy  Lin- 
coln.'^ If  Democracy  in  the  New  World  sometimes  stones 
the  prophets,  it  is  seldom  guilty  of  building  their  sepulchres. 
Out  of  sight,  off  the  stump,  beyond  the  range  of  the  inter- 
viewer, heroes  and  martyrs  soon  pass  from  the  mind  of  a 
fast-living  people;  and  weeds  may  grow  out  of  the  dust 
of  Washington.  But  in  this  case  what  neglect  has  done 
good  taste  would  have  dictated ;  it  is  well  that  the  dogwoods 
are  allowed  to  grow  unchecked  over  the  wilderness  grave. 
Thirteen  months  after  the  death  of  his  Nancy,  Thomas 
Lincoln  went  to  Elizabethtown,  Kentucky,  and  suddenly 
presented  himself  to  Mrs.  Sally  Johnston,  who  had  in  former 
days  rejected  him  for  a  better  match,  but  had  become  a 
widow.  ''Well,  Mrs.  Johnston,  I  have  no  wife  and  you 
have  no  husband,  I  came  a  purpose  to  marry  you.  I 
knowed  you  from  a  gal  and  you  knowed  me  from  a  boy. 
I  have  no  time  to  lose,  and  if  you  are  willin',  let  it  be  done 
straight  off."  "Tommy,  I  know  you  well,  and  have  no  ob- 
jection to  marrying  you;  but  I  cannot  do  it  straight  off,  as 
I  ovv^e  some  debts  that  must  first  be  paid."  They  were  mar- 
ried next  morning,  and  the  new  Mrs.  Lincoln,  who  owned, 
among  other  wonderous   household   goods,   a  bureau   that 


Il8  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

cost  forty  dollars,  and^  who  had  been  led,  it  seems,  to  be- 
lieve that  her  new  husband  was  reformed  and  a  prosper- 
ous farmer,  was  conveyed  with  her  bureau  to  the  smiling 
scene  of  his  reformation  and  prosperity.  Being,  however, 
a  sensible  Christian  woman,  she  made  the  best  of  a  bad  bar- 
gain, got  her  husband  to  put  down  a  floor  and  hang  doors 
and  windows,  made  things  generally  decent,  and  was  very 
kind  to  the  chidren,  especially  to  Abe,  to  whom  she  took 
a  great  liking,  and  who  owed  to  his  good  stepmother*  what 
other  heroes  have  owed  to  their  mothers.  "From  that  time 
on,"  according  to  his  garrulous  relative,  Dennis  Hanks. 
*'he  appeared  to  lead  a  new  life."  It  seems  to  have  been 
difficult  to  extract  from  him,  "for  campaign  purposes,"  the 
incidents  of  his  life  before  it  took  this  happy  turn. 

He  described  his  own  education  in  a  Congressional  hand- 
book as  "defective."  In  Kentucky  he  occasionally  trudged 
with  his  little  sister,  rather  as  an  escort  than  as  a  school- 
fellow, to  a  school  four  miles  off,  kept  by  one  Caleb  Hazel, 
who  could  teach  reading  and  writing  after  a  fashion,  and 
a  little  arithmetic,  but  whose  great  qualification  for  his  office 
lay  in  his  power  and  readiness  "to  whip  the  big  boys."  So 
far  American  respect  for  popular  education  as  the  key  to 
success  in  life  prevailed  even  in  those  wilds,  and  in  such 
a  family  as  that  of  Thomas  Lincoln.  Under  the  auspices 
of  his  new  mother,  Abraham  began  attending  school  again. 
The  master  was  one  Crawford,  who  tought  not  only  reading, 
writing  and  arithmetic,  but  "manners." 

Mr.  Crawford,  it  seems,  was  a  martinet  in  spelling,  and 
one  day  he  was  going  to  punish  a  whole  class  for  failing 
to  spell  defied,  when  Lincoln  telegraphed  the  right  letter  to 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  II9 

a  young  lady  by  putting  his  finger  with  a  significant  smile 
to  his  eye.  Many  years  later,  however,  and  after  his  en- 
trance to  public  life,  Lincoln  himself  spelt  apology  with  a 
double  p,  planning  with  a  single  n,  and  very  with  a  double 
r.  His  schooling  was  very  irregular,  his  school  days  hardly 
amounting  to  a  year  in  all,  and  such  education  as  he  had 
was  picked  up  afterwards  by  himself.  His  appetite  for 
mental  food,  however,  was  always  strong,  and  he  devoured 
all  the  books,  a  few  and  not  very  select,  which  could  be 
found  in  the  neighborhood  of  "Pigeon  Creek." 

Equally  strong  was  his  passion  for  stump  oratory,  the 
taste  for  which  pervades  the  New  World,  even  in  the  least 
intellectual  districts,  as  the  taste  for  church  festivals  per- 
vades the  people  of  Spain,  or  the  taste  for  cricket  the  peo- 
ple of  England.  Abe's  neighbor,  John  Romine,  says  "he 
was  awful  lazy.  He  worked  for  me ;  was  always  reading 
and  thinking;  used  to  get  mad  at  him.  He  worked  for 
me  in  1829,  pulling  fodder.  I  say  Abe  was  awful  lazy, 
he  would  laugh  and  talk  and  crack  jokes  all  the  time ;  didn't 
love  work,  but  did  dearly  love  his  pay."  He  liked  to  lie 
under  a  shade  trade,  or  up  in  the  loft  of  the  cabin  and  read, 
cipher,  or  scribble.  At  night  he  ciphered  by  the  light  of 
the  fire  on  the  wooden  fire  shovel.  He  practiced  stump  ora- 
tory by  repeating  the  sermons,  and  sometimes  by  preaching 
himself,  to  his  brothers  and  sister.  His  gifts  in  the  rhetori- 
cal line  were  high.  When  it  was  announced  in  the  harvest 
field  that  Abe  had  taken  the  stump,  work  was  at  an  end. 

Abe's  first  written  composition  appears  to  have  been  an 
essay  against  cruelty  to  animals,  a  theme  the  choice  of  which 
was  at  once  indicative  of  his  kindness  of  heart  and  practi- 


I20  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

cally  judicious,  since  the  young  gentlemen  in  the  neighbor- 
hood were  in  the  habit  of  catching  terrapins  and  putting  hot 
coals  upon  their  backs.  The  essay  appears  not  to  have 
been  preserved,  and  we  cannot  say  whether  its  author 
succeeded  in  explaining  that  ethical  mystery — the  love 
of  cruelty  in  boys. 

Society  in  the  neighborhood  of  Pigeon  Creek  was  of  the 
thorough  backwoods  type;  as  coarse  as  possible,  but  hos- 
pitable and  kindly,  free  from  cant  and  varnish,  and  a  bet- 
ter school  of  life  than  of  manners,  though,  after  all,  the 
best  manners  are  learned  in  the  best  school  of  life,  and  the 
school  of  life  in  which  Abe  studied  was  not  the  worst.  He 
became  a  leading  favorite,  and  his  appearance,  towering 
above  the  other  hunting  shirts,  was  always  the  signal  for 
the  fun  to  begin.  His  nature  seems  to  have  been,  like 
many  others,  open  alike  to  cheerful  and  to  gloomy  impres- 
sions. A  main  source  of  his  popularity  was  the  fund  of 
stories  to  which  he  was  always  adding,  and  to  which  in 
after-life  he  constantly  went  for  solace,  under  depression 
or  responsibility,  as  another  man  would  go  to  his  cigar  or 
snuf¥  box.  The  taste  was  not  individual  but  local,  and  nat- 
ural to  keen-witted  people  who  had  no  other  food  for  their 
wits.  In  those  circles  "the  ladies  drank  whiskey-toddy, 
while  the  men  drank  it  straight." 

Lincoln  was  by  no  means  fond  of  drink,  but  in  this,  as 
in  everything  else,  he  followed  the  great  law  of  his  life 
as  a  politician,  by  falling  in  with  the  humor  of  the  people. 
One  cold  night  he  and  his  companions  found  an  acquaint- 
ance lying  dead-drunk  in  a  puddle.  All  but  Lincoln  were 
disposed  to  let  him  lie  where  he  was,  and  freeze  to  death. 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  121 

But  Abe  "bent  his  mighty  frame,  and  taking  the  man  in  his 
long  arms,  carried  him  a  great  distance  to  Dennis  Hanks' 
cabin.  There  he  built  a  fire,  warmed,  rubbed  and  nursed 
him  through  the  entire  night,  his  companions  having  left  him 
alone  in  his  merciful  task."  His  real  kindness  of  heart 
is  always  coming  out  in  the  most  striking  way,  and  it  was 
not  impaired  even  by  civil  war. 

Lincoln  had  a  very  good  constitution,  but  his  frame  hard- 
ly bespoke  great  strength ;  he  was  six  feet  four  and  large- 
boned,  but  narrow  chested,  and  had  almost  a  consumptive 
appearance.  His  strength,  nevertheless,  was  great.  We 
are  told  that,  harnessed  with  ropes  and  straps,  he  could  lift 
a  box  of  stones  weighing  from  a  thousand  to  twelve  hun- 
dred pounds.  In  wrestling,  of  which  he  was  very  fond, 
he  had  not  his  match  near  Pigeon  Creek,  and  only  once 
found  him  anywhere  else.  He  was  also  formidable  as  a 
pugilist.  But  he  was  no  bully;  on  the  contrary  he  was 
peaceable  and  chivalrous  in  a  rough  way. 

That  Abraham  Lincoln  should  have  said,  when  a  bare- 
legged boy,  that  he  intended  to  be  President  of  the  United 
States  is  not  remarkable.  Every  boy  in  the  United  States 
says  it.  But  Lincoln  was  really  carrying  on  his  political 
education.  Dennis  Hanks  is  asked  how  he  and  Lincoln 
acquired  their  knowledge.  "We  learned,"  he  replies,  "by 
sight,  scent  and  hearing.  We  heard  all  that  was  said,  and 
talked  over  and  over  the  questions  heard;  wore  them  slick 
and  threadbare.  Went  to  political  and  other  speeches 
and  gatherings,  as  you  do  now ;  we  would  hear  all  sides  and 
opinions,  talk  them  over,  discuss  them,  agreeing  or  disagree- 
ing.    Abe  was  originally  a  Democrat  after  the  order  of 


122  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

Jackson ;  so  was  his  father,  so  we  all  were.  .  .  .  He 
preached,  made  speeches,  read  for  us,  explained  to  us,  &c. 
.  .  .  .  Abe  was  a  cheerful  boy,  a  witty  boy ;  was  humor- 
ous always;  sometimes  would  get  sad,  not  very  often.  .  . 
Lincoln  would  frequently  make  political  and  other  speeches ; 
he  was  calm,  logical  and  clear  always.  He  attended  trials, 
went  to  court  always,  read  the  revised  statutes  of  Indiana, 
dated  1824,  heard  law  speeches,  and  listened  to  law  trials. 
He  was  always  reading,  scribbling,  writing,  ciphering,  writ- 
ing poetry  and  the  like.  Abe  was  a  good  talker,  a  good 
reader,  and  was  a  kind  of  newsboy."  One  or  two  articles 
written  by  Abe  found  their  way  into  obscure  journals,  to 
his  infinite  gratification.  His  foot  was  on  the  first  round 
of  the  ladder.  It  is  right  to  say  that  his  culture  was  not 
solely  political,  and  that  he  was  able  to  astonish  the  natives 
of  Gentryville  by  explaining  that  when  the  sun  appeared 
to  set,  it  "was  we  did  the  sinking  and  not  the  sun." 

Abe  was  tired  of  his  home,  as  a  son  of  Thomas  Lincoln 
might  be,  without  disparagement  to  his  filial  piety ;  and  he 
was  glad  to  get  off  with  a  neighbor  on  a  commercial  trip 
down  the  river  to  New  Orleans.  The  trip  was  successful 
in  a  small  way,  and  Abe  soon  after  repeated  it  with  other 
companions.  In  the  first  trip  the  great  emancipator  came 
in  contact  with  the  negro  in  a  way  that  did  not  seem  likely 
to  prepossess  him  in  favor  of  the  race.  The  boat  was 
boarded  by  negro  robbers,  who  were  repulsed  only  after  a 
fray  in  which  Abe  got  a  scar  which  he  carried  to  the  grave. 
But  he  saw  with  his  own  eyes  slaves  manacled  and  whip- 
ped at  New  Orleans;  and  though  his  sympathies  were  not 
far-reaching,  the  actual  sight  of  suffering  never  failed  to 


ABl^AHAM   LINCOLN.  tz^ 

make  an  Impression  on  his  mind.  A  negrophilist  he  never 
became.  "I  protest,"  he  said  afterwards,  when  engaged  in 
the  slavery  controversy,  "against  the  counterfeit  logic  which 
concludes  that  because  I  do  not  want  a  black  wom- 
an for  a  slave  I  must  necessarily  want  her  for 
a  wife.  I  need  not  have  her  for  either.  I  can 
just  leave  her  alone.  In  some  respects  she  certainly 
is  not  my  equal ;  but  in  her  natural  right  to  eat 
the  bread  which  she  earns  with  her  own  hands,  she 
is  my  equal  and  the  equal  of  all  others."  It  would  be  dif- 
ficult to  put  the  case  better. 

While  Abraham  Lincoln  was  trading  to  New  Orleans,  his 
father,  Thomas  Lincoln,  was  on  the  move  again.  This  time 
he  migrated  to  Illinois,  and  there  again  shifted  from  place 
to  place,  gathering  no  moss,  till  he  died  as  thriftless  and 
poor  as  he  had  lived.  We  have,  in  later  years,  an  applica- 
tion from  him  to  his  son  for  money,  to  which  the  son  re- 
sponds in  a  tone  which  implies  some  doubt  as  to  the  strict 
accuracy  of  the  ground  on  which  the  old  gentleman's  request 
was  preferred.  Their  relations  were  evidently  not  very  af- 
fectionate, though  there  is  nothing  unfilial  in  Abe's  conduct. 
Abraham  himself  drifted  to  Salem  on  the  Sangamon,  in 
Illinois,  twenty  miles  northwest  of  Springfield,  where  he 
became  clerk  in  a  new  store,  set  up  by  Denton  Offutt,  with 
whom  he  had  formed  a  connection  in  one  of  his  trips  to 
New  Orleans.  Salem  was  then  a  village  of  a  dozen  houses, 
and  the  little  centre  of  society  very  like  that  of  Pigeon  Creek 
and  its  neighborhood,  but  more  decidedly  western.  We 
are  told  that  "here  Mr.  Lincoln  became  acquainted  with  a 
class  of  men  the  world  never  saw  the  like  of  before  or 


'24  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

since.  They  were  large  men, — large  in  body  and  large  in 
mind;  hard  to  whip  and  never  to  be  fooled.  They  were  a 
bold,  daring  and  reckless  set  of  men ;  they  were  men  of  their 
own  minds, — believed  what  was  demonstrable,  were  men  of 
great  common  sense.  With  these  men  Mr.  Lincoln  was 
thrown ;  with  them  he  lived  and  with  them  he  moved  and 
almost  had  his  being.  They  were  skeptics  all — scoffers 
some.  These  scoffers  were  good  men,  and  their  scoffs 
were  protests  against  theology — loud  protests  against  the 
follies  of  Christianity;  they  had  never  heard  of  theism 
and  the  new  and  better  religious  thoughts  of  this  age. 
Hence,  being  natural  skeptics  and  being  bold,  brave  men, 
they  uttered  their  thoughts  freely." 

It  seems  to  be  proved,  by  conclusive  evidence,  that  Mr. 
Lincoln  shared  the  sentiments  of  his  companions,  and  that 
he  was  never  a  member  of  any  Church,  a  believer  in  the 
divinity  of  Christ,  or  a  Christian  of  any  denomination.  He 
is  described  as  an  avowed,  an  open  free-thinker,  some- 
times bordering  on  atheism,  going  extreme  lengths  against 
Christian  doctrines,  and  "shocking"  men  whom  it  was  prob- 
ably not  very  easy  to  shock.  He  even  wrote  a  little  work 
on  "Infidelity,"  attacking  Christianity  in  general,  and  espec- 
ially the  belief  that  Jesus  was  the  Son  of  God ;  but  the  manu- 
script was  destroyed  by  a  prescient  friend,  who  knew  that 
its  publication  would  ruin  the  writer  in  the  political  market. 
There  is  reason  to  believe  that  Burns  contributed  to  Lin- 
coln's skepticism,  but  he  drew  it  more  directly  from  Volney, 
Paine,  Hume  and  Gibbon.  His  fits  of  downright  atheism 
appear  to  have  been  transient ;  his  settled  belief  was  theism 
with   a  morality   which,   though  he   was   not   aware  of  it, 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  1 25 

he  had  really  derived  from  the  gospel.  It  is  needles  to  say 
that  the  case  had  never  been  rationally  presented  to  him, 
and  that  his  decision  against  Christianity  would  prove  noth- 
ing, even  if  his  mind  had  been  more  powerful  than  it  was. 
Like  many  skeptics,  he  was  liable  to  superstitions,  especially 
to  the  superstition  of  self-consciousness,  a  conviction  that  he 
was  the  subject  of  a  special  decree  made  by  some  nameless 
and  mysterious  power.  Even  from  a  belief  in  apparitions 
he  was  not  free. 

Abe's  popularity  grew  apace ;  his  ambition  grew  with  it ; 
it  is  astonishing  how  readily  and  freely  the  plant  sprouts 
upon  that  soil.  He  was  at  this  time  carrying  on  his  edu- 
cation evidently  with  a  view  to  public  life.  Books  were 
not  easily  found.  He  wanted  to  study  English  Gram- 
mar, considering  that  accomplishment  desirable  for  a  states- 
man ;  and,  being  told  that  there  was  a  Grammar  in  a  house 
six  miles  from  Salem,  he  left  his  breakfast  at  once  and 
walked  off  to  borrow  it.  He  would  slip  away  into  the  woods 
and  spend  hours  in  study  and  thinking.  He  sat  up  late 
at  night,  and  as  light  was  expensive,  made  a  blaze  of  shav- 
ings in  a  cooper's  shop.  He  waylaid  every  visitor  to  New 
Salem  who  had  any  pretense  to  scholarship,  and  extracted 
explanations  of  things  which  he  did  not  under- 
stand. It  does  not  appear  that  the  work  of  Adam  Smith, 
or  any  work  upon  political  economy,  currency,  or  any  finan- 
cial subject  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  student  who  was 
desfmed  to  conduct  the  most  tremendous  operations  in  the 
whole  history  of  finance. 

The  next  episode  in  Lincoln's  life  which  may  be  regarded 
as  a  part  of  his  training  was  in  the  command  of 
a     company     of    militia     in     the     "Black     Hawk"     war. 


I»<5  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

Black  Hawk  was  an  Indian  chief  of  great  craft  and 
power,  and,  apparently,  of  fine  character,  who  had  the 
effrontery  to  object  to  being  improved  off  the  face  of  crea- 
tion, an  offense  which  he  aggravated  by  an  hereditary  at- 
tachment to  the  British.  At  a  muster  of  the  Sangamon 
company  at  Clary's  Grove,  Lincoln  was  elected  captain. 
The  election  was  a  proof  of  his  popularity ;  but  he  found  it 
rather  hard  to  manage  his  constituents  in  the  field.  The 
campaign  opened  with  a  cleverly-won  victory  on  the  part 
of  Black  Hawk,  and  a  rapid  retrograde  movement  on  the 
part  of  tlie  militia.  Ultimately,  however,  Black  Hawk  was 
overpowered,  and  most  of  his  men  met  their  doom  in 
attempting  to  retreat  across  the  Mississippi. 

''During  this  short  Indian  campaign,"  says  one  who  took 
part  in  it,  "we  had  some  hard  times,  often  hungry,  but 
we  had  a  great  deal  of  sport,  especially  at  nights — foot 
racing,  some  horse  racing,  jumping,  telling  anecdotes,  in 
which  Lincoln  beat  all,  keeping  up  a  constant  laughter 
and  good  humor  all  the  time ;  among  the  soldiers  some  card- 
playing  and  wrestling  in  which  Lincoln  took  a  prominent 
part.  I  think  it  safe  to  say  he  was  never  thrown  in  a 
wrestle.  While  in  the  army  he  kept  a  handkerchief  tied 
around  him  all  the  time  for  wrestling  purposes,  and  loved 
the  sport  as  well  as  anyone  could.  He  was  seldom  if  ever 
beat  jumping.  During  the  campaign  Lincoln  himself  was 
always  ready  for  an  emergency.  He  endured  hardships 
like  a  good  soldier;  he  never  complained,  nor  did  he  fear 
dangers/' 

Returning  to  New  Salem,  Lincoln,  having  served  his  ap- 
prenticeship as  a  clerk,  commenced  storekeeping  on  his  own 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  12J 

account.  An  opening  was  made  for  him  by  the  departure 
of  Mr.  Radford,  the  keeper  of  a  grocery,  who,  having 
offended  the  Clary's  Grove  boys,  they  ''selected  a  conveni- 
ent night  for  breaking  in  his  windows  and  gutting  his  es- 
tablishment." From  his  ruins  arose  the  firm  of  Lincoln 
&  Berry. 

In  storekeeping,  however,  Mr.  Lincoln  did  not  prosper; 
neither  storekeeping  nor  any  other  regular  business  or  oc- 
cupation was  congenial  to  his  character.  He  was  born  to 
be  a  politician.  Accordingly  he  began  to  read  law,  with 
which  he  combined  surveying,  at  which  we  are  assured 
he  made  himself  "expert''  by  a  six  weeks'  course  of  study. 
The  few  law  books  needed  for  western  practice  were  sup- 
plied to  him  by  a  kind  friend  at  Springfield,  and,  according 
to  a  witness  who  has  evidently  an  accurate  memory  for 
details,  '*he  went  to  read  law  in  1832  or  1833  barefooted, 
seated  in  the  shade  of  a  tree  and  would  grind  around  with 
the  shade,  just  opposite  Berry's  grocery  store,  a  few  feet 
south  of  the  door,  occasionally  lying  flat  on  his  back  and 
putting  his  feet  up  the  tree."  Evidently,  whatever  he  read, 
especially  of  a  practical  kind,  he  made  thoroughly  his  own. 
It  is  needless  to  say  that  he  did  not  become  a  master  of 
scientific  jurisprudence;  but  it  seems  that  he  did  become  an 
effective  western  advocate.  What  is  more,  there  is  conclu- 
sive testimony  to  the  fact  that  he  was — what  has  been  scan- 
dalously alleged  to  be  rare,  even  in  the  United  States — 
an  honest  lawyer. 

**Love  of  justice  and  fair  play,"  says  one  of  his  profes- 
sional brothers  of  the  bar,  **was  his  predominant  trait. 
I  have  often  listened  to  him  when  I  thought  he  would  state 


128  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

his  case  out  of  Court.  It  was  not  in  his  nature  to  assume 
or  attempt  to  bolster  up  a  false  position.  He  would  aban- 
don his  case  first.  His  power  as  an  advocate  seems  to  have 
depended  on  his  conviction  that  the  right  was  on  his  side. 
Mr.  Herndon,  who  visited  Lincoln's  office  on  business, 
gives  the  following  reminiscence :  "Air.  Lincoln  was  seated 
at  his  table,  listening  very  attentively  to  a  man  who  was 
talking  earnestly  in  a  low  tone.  After  the  would-be  client 
had  stated  the  facts  of  the  case,  Mr.  Lincoln  replied,  'yes, 
there  is  no  reasonable  doubt  but  that  I  can  gain  your  case 
for  you.  I  can  set  a  whole  neighborhood  at  logger  heads; 
I  can  distress  a  widowed  mother  and  her  six  fatherless 
children,  and  thereby  get  for  you  six  hundred  dollars,  which 
rightly  belongs,  it  appears  to  me,  as  much  to  the  woman  and 
her  children  as  it  does  to  you.  You  must  remember  that 
some  things  that  are  legally  right  are  not  morally  right. 
I  shall  not  take  your  case,  but  will  give  you  a  bit  of  ad- 
vice, for  which  I  will  charge  you  nothing.  You  seem  to 
be  a  sprightly,  energetic  man.  I  would  advise  you  to  try 
your  hand  at  making  six  hundred  dollars  in  some  other 
way." 

There  is  one  part  of  Lincoln's  early  life  which,  though 
scandal  may  fatten  on  it,  we  shall  pass  over  lightly;  we 
mean  that  part  which  relates  to  his  love  affairs  and  his 
marriage.  Criticism,  and  even  biography,  should  respect 
as  far  as  possible  the  sanctuary  of  affection.  That  a 
man  has  dedicated  his  life  to  the  service  of  the  public  is 
no  reason  why  the  public  should  be  licensed  to  amuse  itself 
by  playing  with  his  heartstrings.  Not  only  as  a  storekeeper, 
but  in  every  capacity,  Mr.  Lincoln  was  far  more  happy  in  his 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  I  29 

relations  with  men  than  with  women.  He  however  loved, 
and  loved  deeply,  Ann  Rutledge,  who  appears  to  have  been 
entirely  worthy  of  his  attachment,  and  whose  death  at  the 
moment  when  she  would  have  felt  herself  at  liberty  to 
marry  him,  threw  him  into  a  transport  of  grief,  which 
threatened  his  reason  and  excited  the  gravest  apprehen- 
sion of  his  friends.  In  stormy  weather,  especially,  he  would 
rave  piteously,  crying  that  he  could  "never  be  reconciled 
to  have  the  snow,  rains  and  storms  to  beat  upon  her  grave." 
This  first  love  he  seems  never  to  have  forgotten.  He  next 
had  an  affair  not  so  creditable  to  him.  Finally,  he  made 
a  match  of  which  the  world  has  heard,  perhaps,  enough, 
though  the  western  boy  was  too  true  a  gentleman  to  let  it 
hear  anything  about  the  matter  from  his  lips.  It  is  enough 
to  say  that  this  man  was  not  wanting  in  that  not  incon- 
siderable element  of  worth,  even  of  the  worth  of  statesmen, 
strong  and  pure  affection. 

"If  ever,"  said  Abraham  Lincoln,  "American  society  and 
the  United  States  Government  are  demoralized  and  over- 
thrown, it  will  come  from  the  voracious  desire  of  office — 
this  wriggle  to  live  without  toil,  from  which  I  am  not  free 
myself."  These  words  ought  to  be  written  up  in  the  largest 
characters  in  every  schoolroom  in  the  United  States.  The 
confession  with  which  they  conclude  is  as  true  as  the  rest. 
Mr.  Lincoln,  we  are  told,  took  no  part  in  the  promotion  of 
local  enterprises,  railroads,  schools,  churches,  asylums. 
The  benefits  he  proposed  for  his  fellow-men  were  to  be  ac- 
complished by  political  means  alone. 

Lincoln's  fundamental  principle  was  devotion  to  the  pop- 
ular  will.     In   his   address   to   the   people   of   Sangamon 


130  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN. 

County,  he  says,  'Svhile  acting  as  their  representative  I 
shall  be  governed  by  their  will  on  all  subjects  upon  which 
I  have  the  means  of  knowing  what  their  will  is,  and  upon 
all  others  I  will  do  what  my  own  judgment  teaches  me 
will  advance  their  interests." 

Lincoln's  first  attempt  to  get  elected  to  the  State  Legis- 
lature was  unsuccessful.  It  however  brought  him  the 
means  of  "doing  something  for  his  country,"  and  partly 
averting  the  ''death-struggle  of  the  world,"  in  the  shape 
of  the  postmastership  of  New  Salem.  The  business  of  the 
office  was  not  on  a  large  scale,  for  it  was  carried  on  in  Mr. 
Lincoln's  hat — an  integument  of  wdiich  it  is  recorded,  that 
he  refused  to  give  it  to  a  conjurer  to  play  the  tgg  trick  in, 
''not  from  respect  for  his  own  hat,  but  for  the  conjurer's 
eggs."  The  future  President  did  not  fail  to  signalize  his 
first  appearance  as  an  administrator  by  a  sally  of  the  jocu- 
larity which  was  always  struggling  with  melancholy  in  his 
mind.  A  gentleman  of  the  place,  whose  education  had  been 
defective,  was  in  the  habit  of  calling  two  or  three  times  a 
day  at  the  post-office,  and  ostentatiously  inquiring  for  letters. 
At  last  he  received  a  letter,  w^hich,  being  unable  to  read 
himself,  he  got  the  post-master  to  read  for  him  before  a 
large  circle  of  friends.  It  proved  to  be  from  a  negro  lady 
engaged  in  domestic  service  in  the  South,  recalling  the 
memory  of  a  mutual  attachment,  with  a  number  of  incidents 
more  delectable  than  sublime.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  the 
post-master,  by  a  slight  extension  of  the  sphere  of  his  office, 
had  written  the  letter  as  well  as  delivered  it. 

In  a  second  candidature  the  aspirant  was  more  successful, 
and  he  became  one  of  nine   representatives  of  Sangamon 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  I3I 

County,  in  the  State  Legislature  of  Illinois,  who,  being  all 
more  than  six  feet  high,  were  called  "The  Long  Nine." 
With  his  Brobdingnagian  colleagues,  Abraham  plunged  at 
once  into  the  "internal  improvement  system,"  and  dis- 
tinguished himself  above  his  fellows  by  the  unscrupulous 
energy  and  strategy  with  which  he  urged  through  the  Legis- 
lature a  series  of  bubble  schemes  and  jobs.  Railroads  and 
other  improvements,  especially  improvements  in  river  navi- 
gation, were  voted  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  means  or 
credit  of  the  then  thinly-peopled  State. 

It  is  instructive  as  well  as  just  to  remember  that  all  this 
time  the  man  was  strictl}',  nay  sensitively,  honorable  in  his 
private  dealings,  that  he  was  regarded  by  his  fellows  as  a 
paragon  of  probity,  that  his  word  was  never  questioned, 
that  of  personal  corruption  calumny  itself,  so  far  as  we 
are  aware,  never  dared  to  accuse  him.  Politics,  it  seems, 
may  be  a  game  apart,  with  rules  of  its  own  which  supersede 
morality. 

Considering  that  this  man  was  destined  to  preside  over 
the  most  tremendous  operations  In  the  whole  history  of 
finance,  it  is  especially  instructive  to  see  what  was  the  state 
of  his  mind  on  economical  subjects.  He  actually  proposed 
to  pass  a  usury  law,  having  arrived,  it  appears,  at  the  sage 
conviction  that  while  to  pay  the  current  rent  for  the  use  of 
a  house  or  the  current  fee  for  the  services  of  a  lawyer  is 
perfectly  proper,  to  pay  the  current  price  for  money  is  to 
"allow  a  few  individuals  to  levy  a  direct  tax  on  the  com- 
munity." But  this  is  an  ordinary  illusion.  Abraham  Lin- 
coln's illusions  went  far  beyond  it.  As  President,  when  told 
that  the  finances  were  low,  he  asked  whether  the  printing 


tj2  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

machine  had  given  out,  and  he  suggested,  as  a  special  temp- 
tation to  capitaHsts,  the  issue  of  a  class  of  bonds  which 
should  be  exempt  from  seizure  for  debt.  It  may  safely  be 
said  that  the  burden  of  the  United  States  debt  was  ultimately 
increased  fifty  per  cent,  through  sheer  ignorance  of  the 
simplest  principles  of  economy  and  finance  on  the  part  of 
those  by  whom  it  was  contracted. 

Lincoln's  style,  both  as  a  speaker  and  a  writer,  ultimately 
became  plain,  terse,  and  with  occasional  faults  of  taste, 
caused  by  imperfect  education,  pure  as  well  as  effective. 
His  Gettysburg  address  and  some  of  his  State  Papers  are 
admirable  in  their  way.  Saving  one  very  flat  expression, 
the  address  has  no  superior  in  literature.  But  it  was  im- 
possible that  the  oratory  of  a  rising  politican,  especially  in 
the  west,  should  be  free  from  spread-eagleism.  In  debate 
he  w^as  neither  bitter  nor  personal  in  the  bad  sense,  though 
he  had  a  good  deal  of  caustic  humor  and  knew  how  to 
make  an  effective  use  of  it. 

Passing  from  State  politics  to  those  of  the  Union,  and 
elected  to  Congress  as  a  Whig,  a  party  to  which  he  had 
gradually  found  his  way  from  his  original  position  as  a 
"nominal  Jackson  man,"  Mr.  Lincoln  stood  forth  in  vigorous 
though  discreet  and  temperate  opposition  to  the  Alexican 
War. 

Great  events  were  by  this  time  beginning  to  loom  on  the 
political  horizon.  The  Missouri  Compromise  was  broken. 
Parties  commenced  slowly  biit  surely  to  divide  themselves 
into  Pro-slavery  and  Anti-slavery.  The  ''irrepressible  con- 
flict" was  coming  on,  though  none  of  the  American  poli- 
ticians— not  even  the  author  of  that  famous  phrase — dis- 


ABRAltAM    LlNCOLl^.  13^ 

tinctly  recognized  its  advent.  Lincoln  seems  to  have  been 
sincerely  opposed  to  slavery,  though  he  was  no^  an  Aboli- 
tionist. But  he  was  evidently  led  more  and  more  to  take 
anti-slavery  ground  by  his  antagonism  to  Douglas,  who  oc- 
cupied a  middle  position,  and  tried  to  gain  at  once  the  sup- 
port of  the  South,  and  that  of  the  waverers  at  the  North, 
by  theoretically  supporting  the  extension  of  slavery,  yet 
practically  excluding  it  from  the  territories  by  the  doctrine 
of  squatter  sovereignty.  Lincoln  had  to  be  very  wary  in 
angling  for  the  vote  of  the  Abolitionists,  who  had  recently 
been  the  objects  of  universal  obloquy,  and  were  still  offen- 
sive to  a  large  section  of  the  Republican  party. 

On  one  occasion,  the  opinions  which  he  propounded  by  no 
means  suited  the  Abolitionists,  and  "they  required  him  to 
change  them  forthwith.  He  thought  it  zvould  be  zvisc  to 
do  so  considering  the  pectdiar  circumstances  of  his  case; 
but  before  committing  himself  finally,  he  sought  an  under- 
standing with  Judge  Logan.  He  told  the  judge  what  he 
was  disposed  to  do,  and  said  he  would  act  upon  the  inclina- 
tion if  the  judge  would  not  regard  it  as  treading  on  his 
toes.  The  judge  said  he  was  opposed  to  the  doctrine  pro- 
posed, but,  for  the  sake  of  the  cause  on  hand,  he  would 
cheerfully  risk  his  toes.  And  so  the  Abolitionists  zvere  ac- 
commodated. Mr.  Lincoln  quietly  made  the  pledge,  and 
they  voted  for  him."  He  came  out,  however,  square 
enough,  and  in  the  very  nick  of  time  with  his  "house  divided 
against  itself"  speech,  which  took  the  wind  out  of  the  sails 
of  Seward  with  his  "irrepressible  conflict."  Douglas,  whom 
Lincoln  regarded  with  intense  personal  rivalry,  was  tripped 


^34  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

Up  by  a  string  of  astute  interrogations,  the  answers  to  which 
hopelessly  embroiled  him  with  the  South. 

Lincoln's  campaign  against  Douglas  for  the  Senatorship 
greatly  and  deservedly  enhanced  his  reputation  as  a  debater, 
and  he  became  marked  out  as  the  western  candidate  for  the 
Republican  nomination  to  the  Presidency.  A  committee 
favorable  to  his  claims  sent  to  him  to  make  a  speech  at 
New  York.  He  arrived  "in  a  sleek  and  shining  suit  of 
new  black,  covered  with  very  apparent  creases  and  wrinkles 
acquired  by  being  packed  too  closely  and  too  long  in  his 
little  valise."  Some  of  his  supporters  must  have  moralized 
on  the  strange  apparition  which  their  summons  had  raised. 
His  speech,  however,  made  before  an  immense  audience 
at  the  Cooper  Institute,  was  most  successful,  and  as  a  dis- 
play of  constitutional  logic  it  is  a  very  good  speech.  It 
fails,  as  the  speeches  of  these  practical  men  one  and  all  did 
fail,  their  common  sense  and  shrewdness  notwithstanding, 
in  clear  preception  of  the  great  facts  that  two  totally  dif- 
ferent systems  of  society  had  been  formed,  one  in  the  Slave 
States  and  the  other  in  the  Free,  and  that  political  institu- 
tions necessarily  conform  themselves  to  the  social  character 
of  the  people.  Whether  the  Civil  War  could,  by  any  men 
or  means,  have  been  arrested,  it  would  be  hard  to  say;  but 
assuredly  stump  orators,  even  the  very  best  of  them,  were 
not  the  men  to  avert  it.  At  that  great  crisis  no  saviour 
appeared. 

On  May  loth,  in  the  eventful  year  i860,  the  Republican 
State  Convention  of  Illinois,  by  acclamation,  and  amid  great 
enthusiasm,  nominated  Lincoln  for  the  Presidency.  One 
who  saw  him  receive  the  nomination  says,  *'I  then  thought 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  I  35 

him  one  of  the  most  diffident  and  most  plagued  of  men 
I  ever  saw."  We  may  depend  upon  it,  however,  that  his 
diffidence  of  manner  was  accompanied  by  no  reluctance 
of  heart.  The  splendid  prize  which  he  had  won  had  been 
the  object  of  his  passionate  desire.  In  the  midst  of  the  pro- 
ceedings, the  door  of  the  wigwam  opened,  and  Lincoln's 
kinsman,  John  Hanks,  entered,  with  "two  small  triangular 
'heart-rails,'  surmounted  by  a  banner  with  the  inscription, 
'Two  rails  from  a  lot  made  by  Abraham  Lincoln  and  John 
Hanks  in  the  Sangamon  bottom,  in  the  year  1830."  The 
bearer  of  the  rails,  we  are  told,  was  met  "with  wild  and 
tumultuous  cheers,"  and  "the  whole  scene  was  simply  tem- 
pestuous and  bewildering." 

The  Democrats,  of  course,  did  not  share  the  delight.  An 
old  man,  out  of  Egypt  (the  southern  end  of  Illinois)  came 
up  to  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  said:  "So  you're  Abe  Lincoln?" 
"That's  my  name,  sir."  "They  say  you're  a  self  made  man." 
"Well,  yes,  what  there  is  of  me  is  self-made."  "Well,  all  I 
have  got  to  say,"  observed  the  old  Egpytain,  after  a  careful 
survey  of  the  statesman,  "is,  that  it  was  a  d — ^n  bad  job." 
This  seems  to  be  the  germ  of  the  smart  reply  to  the  remark 
that  Andrew  Jackson  was  a  self-made  man,  "that  relieves  the 
Almighty  of  a  very  heavy  responsibility." 

The  nomination  of  the  State  Convention  of  Illinois  was  ac- 
cepted after  a  very  close  and  exciting  contest  between  Lin- 
coln and  Seward  by  the  convention  of  the  Republican  party 
assembled  at  Chicago.  The  proceedings  seem  to  have  been 
disgraceful.  A  large  delegation  of  roughs,  we  are  told, 
headed  by  Tom  Shyer,  the  pugilist,  attended  for  Seward. 
The  Lincoln  party,  on  the  other  side,  spent  the  whole  night 


136  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

in  mustering  their  "loose  fellows,"  and  at  daylight  the  next 
morning  packed  the  wigwam,  so  that  the  Seward  men  were 
unable  to  get  in.  Another  politician  was  there  nominally  as 
a  candidate,  but  really  only  to  sell  himself  for  a  seat  in  the 
Cabinet.  When  he  claimed  the  fulfilment  of  the  bond,  Lin- 
coln's conscience,  or  at  least  his  regard  for  his  own  reputation, 
struggled  hard.  "All  that  I  am  in  the  world — the  Presi- 
dency and  all  else — I  owe  to  that  opinion  of  me  which  the 
people  express  when  they  call  me  'honest  old  Abe.'  Now, 
what  will  they  think  of  their  honest  Abe  when  he  appoints 
this  man  to  be  his  familiar  adviser?"  What  they  might 
have  said  with  truth  was  that  Abe  was  still  honest  but 
politics  were  not. 

Widely  different  was  the  training  undergone  for  the 
leadership  of  the  people  by  the  Pericles  of  the  American 
Republic  from  that  undergone  by  the  Pericles  of  Athens, 
or  by  any  group  of  statesmen  before  him,  Greek,  Roman, 
or  European.  The  advantages  and  the  disadvantages  of 
Lincoln's  political  education  are  manifest  at  a  glance.  He 
was  sure  to  produce  something  strong,  genuine,  practical, 
and  entirely  in  unison  with  the  thoughts  and  feelings  of 
a  people  which,  like  the  Athenian  in  the  days  of  Pericles, 
was  to  be  led,  not  governed.  On  the  other  hand,  it  neces- 
sarily left  the  statesman  without  the  special  knowledge 
necessary  for  certain  portions  of  his  work,  such  as  finance, 
which  was  badly  managed  during  Lincoln's  Presidency, 
without  the  wisdom  which  flows  from  a  knowledge  of  the 
political  world  and  of  the  past,  without  elevation  and  com- 
prehensiveness of  view.  It  was  fortunate  for  Lincoln  that 
the  questions  with  which  he  had  to  deal,  and  with  which 


ABRAHAM     LINCOLN.  1 37 

his  country  and  the  world  proclaim  him  to  have  dealt,  on 
the  whole,  admirably  well,  though  not  in  their  magnitude 
and  importance,  were  completely  within  his  ken,  and  had 
been  always  present  to  his  mind.  Reconstruction  would 
have  made  a  heavier  demand  on  the  political  science  of 
Clary's  Grove.     But  that  task  was  reserved  for  other  hands.* 


The  foregoing  article,  written  a  number  of  years  ago  for  a  volume  of  Lec- 
tures and  Essays,  originally  printed  for  private  circulation,  we  have  the  kind 
permission  of  the  author  to  reproduce  here.  To  bring  it  within  the  scope  of  our 
pages,  the  essay  has  been  considerably  abridged.  Despite  the  latter  fact,  the 
paper  will  doubtless  prove  acceptable  to  our  readers,  as  it  presents  some  in- 
teresting phases  in  the  early  career  of  Lincoln  not  usually  met  with  in  later-day 
critiques.  G.  M.  A.,  Ed.  8.  C. 


138  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


ANECDOTES  AND  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  LINCOLN. 

LINCOI^N'S  address  at  SPRINGFIELD   BEFORE  GOING 

TO   HIS   INAUGURATION. 

*'Then  came  the  central  incident  of  the  morning.  Once 
more  the  bell  gave  notice  of  starting;  but  as  the  conduc- 
tor paused  with  his  hands  lifted  to  the  bell-rope,  i\Ir.  Lin- 
coln appeared  on  the  platform  of  the  car,  and  raised  his 
hand  to  command  attention.  The  bystanders  bared  their 
heads  to  the  falling  snow-flakes,  and  standing  thus  his 
neighbors  heard  his  voice  for  the  last  time,  in  the  city  of 
his  home,  in  a  farewell  address  so  chaste  and  pathetic 
that  it  reads  as  if  he  already  felt  the  tragic  shadow  of 
forecasting  fate: 

'<  'My  Friends:  No  one  not  in  my  situation  can  ap- 
preciate my  feeling  of  sadness  at  this  parting.  To  this 
place  and  the  kindness  of  these  people  I  owe  everything. 
Here  I  have  lived  a  quarter  of  a  century,  and  have  passed 
from  a  young  to  an  old  man.  Here  my  children  have 
been  born,  and  one  is  buried.  I  now  leave,  not  knowing 
when,  or  whether  I  may  ever  return,  with  a  task  before 
me  greater  than  that  which  rested  upon  Washington. 
Without  the  assistance  of  that  Divine  Being  who  ever  at- 
tended him,  I  cannot  succeed.     With  that  assistance  I 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


M9 


cannot  fail.     Trusting  in  Him,  who  can  go  with  me,  and 
remain  with  you,  and  be  everywhere  for  good,  let  us  con- 
fidently hope  that  all  will  yet  be  well.    To  His  care  com- 
mending you,  as  I 
hope  in  your  pray- 
ers you  will   com- 
mend  me,    I    bid 
you   an    affection- 
ate   farewell.'  " — 
Century      Maga- 


2i7ie. 

MONEY  AND  SELF- 
ISHNESS. 

The  following 
story  was  told  by 
the  Hon.  Schuyler 
Colfax,  who  was 
present  at  the  in- 
terview: 

''In  1862,  the 
people  of  New 
York  City  were 
greatly     troubled, 

(some  of  them)  for  fear  of  a  bombardment  of  the 
city  by  the  confederate  navy.  Public  meetings  were 
hel^  to  discuss  the  situation,  and  the  matter  at  last  re- 
sulted in  the  appointment  of  a  delegation  of  fifty  men 
who  represented,  in  their  own  right,  two  hundred  millions 
of  money. 


Robert  T.  Lincoln.  Son  of  Abraham  Lincoln, 
and  Ex-Secretary  of  War. 


140  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

"These  millionaires  were  to  call  on  the  President  and 

indnce  him  to  send  a  gunboat  or  a  warship  to  protect  the 

city. 

"When  they  called  they  were  impressively  introduced, 

and  the  fact  that  they  owned  two  hundred  millions  of 

money  was  made  especially  prominent. 

"The  chairman  of  the  delegation  made  a  very  earnest 
appeal  for  protection, and  he  also  emphasized  the  fact  that 
they  owned  two  hundred  million  dollars  worth  of  prop- 
erty. 

"In  his  reply  Lincoln  stated  that  he  would  be  glad  to 

afford  them  the  necessary  protection,  but  the  fact  was 
that  under  the  circumstances  it  was  impossible  for  him  to 
furnish  them  even  a  gunboat,  all  the  boats  being  in  use 
and  the  credit  of  the  government  at  low  ebb.  'But,' 
said  he,  'if  I  were  worth  half  as  much  as  you  gentlemen 
are,  and  were  as  badly  frightened  as  you  are,  I  would 
build  a  gunboat  and  give  it  to  the  government  for  the 
protection  of  my  own  city.' 

"  'The  wise  men  of  Gotham'  went  away,  realizing  that 
even  the  money  in  their  pockets  should  be  one  of  the  fac- 
tors of  the  war." 

» 

LINCOLN    AND   THE   OFFICE   SEEKERS. 

A  delegation  once  waited  upon  Lincoln  to  ask  for  the 
appointment  of  a  certain  party  as  Commissioner  to  the 
Sandwich  Islands. 

They  argued  their  case  earnestly,  and  at  last  made  a 
strong  point  of  the  fact  tliat  the  applicant  was  in  poor 
health,  and  a  residence  in  that  climate  would  be  of  great 
benefit  to  him. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


141 


The  President,  however,  closed  the  interview  with  the 
following  remark: 

"Gentlemen,  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  there  are  eight 
other  applicants  for  that  place,  and  they  are  all  sicker 
than  your  7nan  is.^ 


)) 


The  Battle  of  Bull  Kun,  the  First  Great  Battle  of  the  Civil  War,  1861. 
LOYALTY   TO    FRIENDS. 

The  mildness  of  the  man,  and  the  tenderness  of  feeling 
hidden  under  a  rugged  exterior,  were  well  known  char- 
acteristics of  the  martyred  President.  But  there  were 
times  when  righteous  indignation  blazed  in  his  eyes, 
and  his  voice  was  raised  in  defense  of  the  cause  which 
he  had  espoused. 

The  pressure  of  office  seekers  often  annoyed  him  al- 
most beyond  endurance.  During  the  first  few  months  of 
the  administration,  the  frantic  horde  pursued  him  day 


142  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

and  night.  It  jarred  upon  his  patriotism  to  see  men  so 
eager  for  position  and  peh""  when  the  country  was  just 
entering  upon  the  awful  fight  for  life,  and  not  only  this, 
but  unpardonable  selfishness  was  often  revealed. 

A  delegation  of  California  Republicans  called  on  him 
at  one  time  with  a  list  of  proposals  covering  not  only  the 
principal  offices  of  that  state,  but  indeed  of  the  whole 
Pacific  coast. 

Their  program  was  opposed  in  part  by  Senator  Baker, 
who  naturally  claimed  the  right  to  be  consulted  respect- 
ing the  patronage  of  his  section  of  the  Union. 

After  considerable  discussion  some  of  the  Californians, 
in  their  eagerness  to  carry  their  point,  w^ent  so  far  as  to 
assail  the  public  and  private  character  of  Senator  Baker, 
who  was  an  honored  friend  of  Lincoln's. 

The  anger  of  the  President  was  instantly  aroused,  and 
he  exhibited  such  vehemence  and  intensity  that  the  party 
of  politicians  fairly  quailed  before  him.  His  wrath  w^as 
terrifying  when  he  put  his  foot  down,  and  declared  that 
Senator  Baker  was  his  friend,  and  that  no  man  could  as- 
sail him  with  impunity — if  they  hoped  to  gain  anything 
by  such  nefarious  conduct  they  were  greatly  mistaken. 

The  result  was  that  the  charges  against  Senator  Baker 
were  retracted  and  ample  apologies  made, and  such  a  dis- 
position was  made  of  the  offices  on  the  coast  as  satisfied 
Mr.  Baker,  while  the  Californians  were  allowed  to  have 
their  own  way  to  a  great  extent  in  their  owm  state. 

DANCE   AT   MIDNIGHT — HOW   LINCOLN   RECEIVED    THE 

NEWS   FROM    GETTYSBURG. 

"One  evening  at  a  crowded  party  given  by  Senator 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


H3 


Dixon,  I  was  forced  by  the  press  into  a  comer  and  on 
looking  around,  found  my  next  neighbor  was  Secretary 
Stanton.  By-and-by  Dixon  came  along  and  spying  us 
said:    'Stanton,    tell   him   the   scene  between   old   Abe 


The  Battle  of  Gettysburg,  from  the  Painting  by  Wenderoth. 

and  you  the  night  of  the  battle  of  Gettysburg. '      Stan- 
ton then  related  the  following: 

"Mr.  Lincoln  had  been  excessively  solicitous  about  the 
result  of  that  battle.  It  was  known  that  Lee  had  crossed 
into  Pennsylvania,  threatening  Washington,  and  that  a 
battle  had  commenced  near  Gettysburg,  upon  which,  in 
all  probability,  the  fate  of  Washington  and  the  issue  of 
the  war  depended.  The  telegraphic  wires  ran  into  the 
War  Department  and  dispatches  had  been  received  of  the 


144  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

first  day's  fight,  which  showed  how  desperate  was  the 
attack,  the  stubbornness  of  the  defense,  and  that  the  re- 
sult was  indecisive.  All  that  day  and  the  next  Mr.  Lin- 
coln was  in  an  agony  of  anxiety,  running  over,  as  was 
his  wont,  to  the  War  Office  to  ascertain  for  himself  the 
latest  news  instead  of  waiting  for  the  reports  to  be  sent 
him  by  his  subordinates.  Then  came  a  long  interval 
when  nothing  was  heard  from  Meade,  and  the  President 
was  wrought  up  to  an  intense  pitch  of  excitement. 

"Night  came  on, and  Stanton,  seeing  the  President  worn 
out  with  care  and  anxiety,  persuaded  him  to  return  to 
the  White  House,  promising  if  anything  came  over  the 
wires  during  the  night  to  give  him  immediate  informa- 
tion. At  last,  toward  midnight,  came  the  electric  flash 
of  that  great  victory  which  saved  the  Union. 

* 'Stanton  seized  the  dispatch  and  ran  as  fast  as  he  could 
to  the  Executive  Mansion,  up  the  stairs,  and  knocked  at 
the  room  where  the  President  was  catching  a  fitful  slum- 
ber. 

*"Who  is  there?'  he  heard  in  the  voice  of  Mr.  Lin- 
coln. 

'"Stanton.' 

"The  door  was  opened,  and  Mr. Lincoln  appeared  with 
a  light  in  his  hand,  peering  through  the  crack  of  the 
door.  Before  Stanton,  who  was  out  of  breath,  could  say 
a  word  the  President,  w^ho  had  caught  with  unerring  in- 
stinct the  expression  of  his  face,  gave  a  shout  of  exulta- 
tion, grabbed  him  with  both  arms  around  the  waist,  and 
danced  him  around  the  chamber  until  they  were  both 
exhausted. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN,  H5 

''l^hey  then  sat  down  upon  a  trunk,  and  the  President, 
who  was  still  in  his  nightdress,  read  over  and  over  again 
the  telegram,  and  then  discussed  with  him  the  probabili- 
ties of  the  future  and  the  results  of  the  victory,  imtil  the 
day  dawned. 

"Such  a  scene  at  midnight  between  two  of  the  greatest 
Americans  whom  this  generation  had  produced,  to  whom 
all  wise  Providence  had  committed  in  largest  measure 
the  fate  of  Republican  liberty  in  this  Western  world,  may 
not  afford  a  subject  for  the  loftiest  conceptions  of  the 
poet  or  the  painter,  but  more  than  any  other  incident 
within  my  knowledge  it  shows  the  human  nature  of 
these  two  great  men,  and  brings  them  home  to  the  hearts 
and  the  hearthstones  of  the  plain  people  of  whom  Mr. 
Lincoln  was,  on  whom  he  depended,  and  whom  he  loved. 

"It  shows  him  brooding  all  through  those  three  awful 
days,  with  an  anxiety  akin  to  agony  which  no  one  could 
share — worn  and  weary  with  the  long  and  doubtful  con- 
flict between  hope  and  fear — treading  the  wine-press  for 
his  people  alone.  And  at  last  when  the  lightning  flash 
had  lifted  the  dark  cloud,  dancing  like  a  schoolboy  in  the 
ecstasy  of  delight  and  exhibiting  a  touch  of  that  human 
nature  which  makes  all  the  world  akin. 

"As  I  look  back  over  the  intervening  years  to  the  great 
men  and  great  events  of  those  historic  days,  his  figure 
rises  before  my  memory  the  grandest  and  most  majestic 
of  them  all.  There  were  giants  in  those  days,  but  he 
towered  above  them  like  Popocatepetl  or  Chimborazo. 
He  was  great  in  character,  in  intellect,  in  wisdom,  in 
tact,  in  council,  in  speech,  in  heart,  in  person — in  every- 


146  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN, 

thing." — Hon.    A.    H.    Drandege^    in   N.    Y.    Tribune. 

LINCOLN    AND    DOUGLAS. 

In  discussion  Lincoln  often  combined  wit  and  humor 
in  such  a  way  that  it  made  his  opponent  ridiculous.  Mr. 
Douglas  was  often  the  victim  of  these  little  sallies  during 
the  great  debates  before  the  people  of  Illinois  in  the  year 

1858. 

In  relation  to  the  abolition  of  slavery,  Douglas  con- 
stantly argued  or  assumed  that  if  freedom  w^ere  given  to 
the  slave,  it  would  be  followed  with  intermarriage  be- 
tween the  blacks  and  whites.  He  also  charged  that  the 
Republican  party  w^as  anxious  to  repeal  the  laws  of  Ill- 
inois which  prohibited  such  marriages.  At  last  Lincoln 
retorted  about  as  follows: 

"I  solemnly  protest  against  that  counterfeit  logic, which 
presumes  that  because  I  do  not  w^ant  a  black  woman  for  a 
slave,  that  I  do  necessarily  want  her  for  a  wife — I  have 
no  fears  of  marrying  a  negro — it  requires  no  law  to  pre- 
vent me  from  doing  it,  but  if  Judge  Douglas  needs  a  law 
of  that  sort  I  will  do  my  utmost  to  retain  the  enactment 
which  forbids  the  marrying  of  white  people  with  ne- 
groes." 

PARDONS. 

Many  a  distressed  father  or  mother  found  help  in  ap- 
pealing to  Lincoln.  He  was  the  terror  of  his  generals, 
who  feared  that  by  excessive  use  of  the  pardoning  power 
he  would  destroy  the  discipline  of  the  army,and  Secretary 
Seward  was  more  than  indignant  on  many  occasions 
when  he  felt  that  the  President  trespassed  to  an  unwar- 
rantable extent  upon  his  own  domain. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


^M 


Attorney  General  Bates,  who  was  a  Virginian, once  ap- 
proached Lincohi  with  a  special  plea  in  behalf  of  a  young 
Virginian,  who  had  run  away  from  a  Union  father,  and 
enlisted  in  the  rebel  ranks.  He  had  been  g^ptured,  and 
was  then  held  as  a  prisoner 
of  war,  and  was  in  very  poor 
health. 

The  President  pondered 
on  the  matter  for  a  moment, 
and  then  replied:  "Bates,  I 
have  almost  a  parallel  case 
in  which  the  son  of  an  old 
friend  of  mine  ran  away  from 
his  home  in  Illinois  and  en- 
tered the  rebel  army. 

"The  young  fool  has  been 
captured,  and  his  poor  old 
father  has  appealed  to  me 
to  send  him  home,  promising  of  course,  to  keep  him 
there.  I  have  not  seen  my  way  clear  to  do  it,  but  if  you 
and  I  unite  our  influence  with  this  administration,  I  be- 
lieve we  can  manage  to  make  two  loyal  fathers  happy." 
And  he  did. 

Schuyler  Colfax  once  told  a  pathetic  story  of  going  to 
Lincoln  for  a  pardon  for  the  son  of  a  former  constituent. 

He  said  Lincoln  listened  to  the  story  with  his  usual 
patience,  although  he  was  even  then  tired  out  with  in- 
cessant calls  and  demands  upon  his  time,  and  then 
said:  "Some  of  my  generals  complain  that  I  impair  dis- 
cipline by  my  frequent  pardons  and  reprieves,  but  after 


Jefferson  Davis,  President  of  the 

Southern  Confederacy. 

Born  1808.  Died  1889. 


148  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

a  hard  day's  work  it  rests  me^  if  I  can  find  some  excuse 
for  saving  a  poor  fellow's  life,  and  I  shall  go  to  bed  to- 
night thinking  happily  of  the  joy  that  the  signing  of  my 
name  will  give  to  that  poor  fellow  and  his  family." 

And  with  the  tender  smile  which  so  often  illumined 
those  care-worn  features,  he  signed  his  name  and  saved 
that  life. 

NO   PARDON    FOR   SLAVE   STEALERS. 

The  great  clemency  of  the  Chief  Executive  was  so  well 
i:nderstood  that  many  demands  were  made  upon  him  for 
unworthy  objects.  The  Hon.  John  B.  Alley  sa}S  that 
while  he  was  in  congress  a  petition  was  sent  him,  num- 
erously signed,  for  the  pardon  of  a  man  who  had  been 
convicted  of  illegal  slave  tradinor  as  the  commander  of  a 
vessel  engaged  in  kidnapping  the  natives  of  Africa,  and 
bringing  them  to  a  life  of  bondage  in  the  United  States. 

The  President  courteously  read  the  letter  anf'  petition, 
then  drawing  his  lank  figure  up  to  its  full  ]!<=  ight,  he 
said:  "I  believe  I  am  kindly  enough  to  parpen  almost 
any  criminal,  but  the  man  who  for  paltry  ga'n  can  rob 
Africa  of  her  children  to  sell  them  into  bondage  will  get 
no  pardon  from  me.  He  may  lie  in  jail  forever  so  far  as 
I  am  concerned."  Lincoln  evidently  tliought  that  men 
of  this  stamp  could  serve  their  country  better  while  in 
jail,  than  they  cculd  if  they  had  their  freedom. 

A  fa^ther's  experience. 
A  Congressman  went   up  to  the    White    House  one 
morning  on  business,   and  saw  in   the  anteroom,  always 
crowded  with  people  in  those  days,  an  old  man,  crouched 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  149 

all  alone  in  a  corner,  crying  as  if  his  heart  would  break. 
As  such  a  sight  was  by  no  means  uncommon,  the  Con- 
gressman passed  into  the  President's  room,  transacted 
his  business,  and  went  away. 

The  next  morning  he  was  obliged  again  to  go  to  the 
White  Hotise,  and  he  saw  the  same  old  man  crying,  as 
before,  in  the  corner.  He  stopped,  and  said  to  him, 
"What's  the  matter  with  you  old  man?" 

The  old  man  told  him  the  story  of  his  son;  that  he 
was  a  soldier  in  the  Army  of  the  James — General  Btit- 
ler's  army — that  he  had  been  convicted  by  a  court-mar- 
tial of  an  outrao^eous  crime  and  sentenced  to  be  shot 
next  week;  and  that  his  congressman  w^as  so  convinced 
of  the  convicted  man's  guilt  that  he  would  not  intervene. 

"Well,"  said  Mr.  Alley,  "I  will  take  you  into  the  Ex- 
ecutive Chamber  after  I  have  finished  my  business,  and 
you  can  tell  Mr.  Lincoln  all  about  it." 

On  being  introduced  into  Mr.  Lincoln's  presence,  he 
was  accosted  with,  "Well,  my  old  friend,  what  can  I  do 
for  you  to-day?"  The  old  man  then  repeated  to  Mr. 
Lincoln  what  he  had  already  told  the  Congressman  in 
the  anteroom. 

A  cloud  of  sorrow  came  over  the  President's  face  as  he 
replied,  "I  am  sorry  to  say  I  can  do  nothing  for  you. 
Listen  to  this  telegram  received  from  General  Butler 
yesterday:  'President  Lincoln,  I  pray  yoti  not  to  interfere 
with  the  courts-martial  of  the  army.  You  will  destroy 
all  discipline  among  our  soldiers. — B.  F.  BuTLER.'  " 

Every  word  of  this  dispatch  seemed  like  the  death 
knell  of  despair  to  the  old  man's  newly  awakened  hopes. 


I50  ABRAHA:^!  LINCOLN. 

Mr.  Lincoln  watched  his  grief  for  a  minute,  and  then 
exclaimed,  '^By  jingo,  Butler  or  no  Butler,  here  goes!'' — 
writing  a  few  w^ords  and  handing  them  to  the  old  man. 
The  confidence  created  by  Mr.  Lincoln's  words  broke 
down  when  he  read — "Job  Smith  is  not  to  be  shot  until 
further  orders  from  me. — Abraham  Lincoln." 

"Why,"  said  the  old  man,  "I  thought  it  was  to  be  a 
pardon;  but  you  say,  'not  to  be  shot  till  further  orders,' 
and  you  may  order  him  to  be  shot  next  week."  Mr. 
Lincoln  smiled  at  the  old  man's  fears,  and  replied,  "Well, 
my  old  friend,  I  see  you  are  not  very  well  acquainted 
w^ith  me.  If  your  son  never  looks  on  death  till  further 
orders  come  from  me  to  shoot  him,  he  will  live  to  be  a 
great  deal  older  than  Methuselah." 

LINCOLN    AND   STEVENS. 

Thaddeu3  Stevens,  who  so  often  criticised  Mr.  Lincoln 
very  severely  for  not  being  aggressive  and  destructive 
enough,  used  to  tell,  wath  great  gusto,  this  story  of  his 
own  personal  experience. 

Mr.  Stevens  had  gone  with  an  old  lady  from  Lancaster 
County,  Pennsylvania  (his  district),  to  the  White  House, 
to  ask  the  pardon  of  her  son,  condemned  to  die  for  sleep- 
ing on  his  post.  The  President  suddenly  turned  upon 
his  cynical  Pennsylvania  friend,  wdiom  he  knew  had  so 
often  assailed  him  for  excessive  lenity,  and  said,  "Now, 
Thad,  what  would  you  do  in  this  case  if  you  happened  to 
be  President?" 

Mr.  Stevens  knew  how  many  hundreds  of  his  constit- 
uents were  waiting  breathlessly  to  hear  the  result  of  that 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  151 

old  woman's  pilgrimage  to  Washington.  Of  course, 
congressmen  who  desired  to  be  re-elected  liked  to  carry- 
out  the  desires  of  their  constituents.  Stevens  did  not 
relish  the  President's  home-thrust,  but  replied  that,  as  he 
knew  of  the  extenuating  circumstances,  he  would  cer- 
tainly pardon  him. 

''Well,  then,"  said  Mr.  Lincoln,  after  a  moment's 
writing  in  silence,  "here,  madam,  is  your  son's  pardon." 
Her  gratitude  filled  her  heart  to  overflowing,  and  it 
seemed  to  her  as  though  her  son  had  been  snatched  from 
the  gateway  of  the  grave. 

She  could  only  thank  the  President  with  her  tears  as 
she  passed  out,  but  when  she  and  Mr.  Stevens  had 
reached  the  outer  door  of  the  White  House  she  burst  out, 
excitedly  with  the  words,  "I  knew  it  was  a  lie!  I  knew 
it  was  a  lie!"  "What  do  you  mean?"  asked  her  aston- 
ished companion.  "Why,  when  I  left  my  country  home 
in  old  lyancaster  yesterday,  the  neighbors  told  me  that  I 
would  find  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  an  ugly  man,  when 
he  is  really  the  handsomest  man  I  ever  saw  in  my  life. " 
And  certainly,  when  sympathy  and  mercy  lightened  up 
those  rugged  features,  many  a  wife  and  mother  pleading 
for  his  intervention  had  reason  to  think  him  handsome, 
indeed. 

FREDERICK   DOUGLASS   ON   THE   INAUGURATION   OF 

LINCOLN. 

"I  was  present  at  the  inauguration  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  the 
4th  of  March,  1865.  I  felt  then  that  there  was  murder 
in  the  air,  and  I  kept  close  to  his  carriage  on  the  way  to 


152 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


the  Capitol,  for  I  felt  that  I  might  see  him  fall  that  day. 

It  was  a  vague  presentiment. 

"At  that  time  the   Confederate   cause  was  on  its  last 

legs,  as  it  were,  and  there  was  deep  feeling.     I  could  feel 

it  in  the  atmosphere  here.  I 
got  in  front  of  the  east  portico 
of  the  Capitol,  listened  to  his 
inaugural  address,  and  wit- 
nessed his  being  sworn  in  by 
Chief  Justice  Chase. 

"When  he  came  on  to  the 
steps  he  was  accompanied  by 
Vice-President  Johnson.  In 
looking  out  in  the  crowd  he 
saw  me  standing  near  by,  and 
I  could  see  he  was  pointing  me 

Frederick  Douglass.  OUt    tO    AudrCW  JohusOU.      Mr. 

Johnson,  without  knowing  perhaps  that  I  saw  the  move- 
ment, looked  quite  annoyed  that  his  attention  should  be 
called  in  that  direction.  So  I  got  a  peep  into  his  soul. 
As  soon  as  he  saw  me  looking  at  him,  suddenly  he  as- 
sumed rather  an  amicable  expression  of  countenance.  I 
felt  that,  whatever  else  the  man  might  be,  he  was  no 
friend  to  my  people. 

"I  heard  Mr.  Lincoln  deliver  this  wonderful  address.  It 
was  very  short;  but  he  answered  all  the  objections  raised 
to  his  prolonging  the  war  in  one  sentence — it  was  a  re- 
markable sentence. 

"'Fondly  do  we  hope,  profoundly  do  we  pray,  that  this 
mighty  scourge  of  war  shall  soon  pass  away,  yet  if  God 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  153 

wills  it  to  continue  until  all  the  wealth  piled  up  by  two 
hundred  years  of  bondage  shall  have  been  wasted,  and 
each  drop  of  blood  drawn  by  the  lash  shall  have  been 
paid  for,  by  one  drawn  by  the  sword,  we  must  still  say, 
as  was  said  three  thousand  years  ago,  the  judgments  of 
the  Lord  are  true  and  righteous  altogether.' 

"For  the  first  time  in  my  life,  and  I  suppose  the  first 
time  in  any  colored  man's  life,  I  attended  the  reception 
of  President  Lincoln  on  the  evening  of  the  inauguration. 
As  I  approached  the  door  I  was  seized  by  two  policemen 
and  forbidden  to  enter.  I  said  to  them  that  they  were 
mistaken  entirely  in  what  they  were  doing,  that  if  Mr. 
Lincoln  knew  that  I  was  at  the  door  he  would  order  my 
admission,  and  I  bolted  in  by  them.  On  the  inside  I 
was  taken  in  charge  of  two  other  policemen,  to  be  con- 
ducted as  I  supposed  to  the  President,  but  instead  of 
that  they  were  conducting  me  out  of  the  window  on  a 
plank. 

"Oh,"  said  I,  "this  will  not  do,  gentlemen,"  and  as  a 
gentleman  was  passing  in  I  said  to  him,  "Just  say  to  Mr. 
Lincoln  that  Fred.  Douglass  is  at  the  door." 

"He  rushed  in  to  President  Lincoln,  and  in  about 
half  a  minute  I  was  invited  into  the  East  Room  of 
the  White  House.  A  perfect  sea  of  beauty  and  ele- 
gance, too,  it  was.  The  ladies  were  in  very  fine  attire, 
and  Mrs.  Lincoln  was  standing  there.  I  could  not  have 
been  more  than  ten  feet  from  him  when  IMr.  Lincoln 
saw  me;  his  countenance  lighted  up,  and  he  said  in  a 
voice  which  was  heard  all  around:  'Here  comes  my 
friend  Douglass.'    As  I  approached  him  he  reached  out 


154  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

his  hand,  gave  a  cordial  shake,  and  said:  'Douglass,  I 
saw  you  in  the  crowd  to-day  listening  to  my  inaugural 
address.  There  is  no  man's  opinion  that  I  value  more 
than  yours:  what  do  you   think  of  it?'     I  said:    "Mr. 


/^J^C 


The  Famous  Last  Dispatch  of  Lincoln  to  Grant  with  appended  statement  by 

Grant,  certifying  to  its  genuineness. 

Lincoln,  I  cannot  stop  here  to  talk  with  you,  as-  there 
are  thousands  waiting  to  shake  you  by  the  hand;"  but  he 
said  again  again:  'What  did  you  think  of  it?'  I  said: 
"Mr.  Lincoln,  it  was  a  sacred  effort,"  and  then  I  walked 
off.  'I  am  glad  you  liked  it,'  he  said.  That  was  the 
last  time  I  saw  him  to  speak  with  him." 

LINCOLN   AND    REPORTERS. 

Joseph  IMedill,  the  veteran  editor  of  the  Chicago  Trib- 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  155 

U7ie^  v7ho  was  one  of  the  corps  of  reporters,  who  followed 
Lincoln  in  the  great  debates  with  Douglas,  tells  the  fol- 
lowing story: 

"You  will  remember  that  after  Lincoln  had  been  nom- 
inated he  was  asked  to  speak  at  Cooper  Union,  in  New 
York.  The  eastern  people  knew  nothing  about  him  and 
they  desired  to  see  and  hear  him.  Lincoln  prepared  a 
speech  and  gave  copies  to  quite  a  number  of  us,  request- 
ing that  we  study  it  carefully  and  make  such  corrections 
and  suggestions  as  we  saw  fit.  Well,  I  took  my  copy 
and  went  over  it  very  carefully,  and  finally  made  about 
forty  (Changes.  The  others  to  whom  the  address  had 
been  submitted  were  equally  careful,  and  they  made  sev- 
eral amendments.  When  the  speech  was  finally  deliv- 
ered it  was  exactly  word  for  word  with  the  original  copy 
which  Lincoln  gave  us.  Not  a  change  suggested  had 
been  adopted.  I  never  knew  whether  Lincoln  intended 
to  play  a  joke  on  us,  or  whether  he  really  believed  that 
the  alterations  were  not  effective.  I  never  mentioned 
the  matter  to  him,  and  he  said  nothing  more  to  me.  To 
tell  the  truth,  I  was  not  exactly  proud  of  the  part  I 
played  in  the  matter." 

LINCOLN'S   BRAVKRY. 

The  following  story  is  told  by  Gen.  Butler: 
"Lincoln  visited  my  department  twice  while  I  was  in 
command.  He  was  personally  a  very  brave  man,  and 
gave  me  the  worst  fright  of  my  life.  He  came  to  my 
head-quarters  and  said:  'General,  I  should  like  to  ride 
along  your  lines  and  see  them,  and  see  the  boys  and  how 


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ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


157 


they  are  situated  in  camp/     I  said,  "Very  well,  we  will 
go  after  breakfast." 

"I  happened  to  have  a  very  tall,    easy-riding,   pacing 
horse,   and  as  the 

President  was  ra-  1 

ther  long  legged, 
I  tendered  him  the 
use  of  him,  while 
I  rode  beside  him 
on  a  pony.  He 
was  dressed, as  was 
his  custom,  in  a 
black  suit,  a  swal- 
low-tail coat,  and 
tall  silk  hat.  As 
there  rode  on  the 
other  side  of  him 
at  first,  Mr.  Fox, 
the  Secretary  of 
the  Navy,  who  was 
not  more  than  five  feet  six  inches  in  height,  he  stood  out 
as  a  central  figure  of  the  group.  Of  course  the  staff  offi- 
cers and  orderly  were  behind. 

"When  we  got  to  the  lineof  intrenchment,  from  which 
the  line  of  rebel  pickets  was  not  more  than  three  hundred 
yards,  he  towered  high  above  the  works,  and  as  we  came 
to  the  several  encampments  the  boys  all  turned  out  and 
cheered  him  lustily.  Of  course  the  enemy's  attention 
was  w^holly  directed  to  this  performance,  and  with  the 
glass  it  could  be  plainly  seen  that  the  eyes  of  their  offi- 


Gen.  Geo.  B.  McClellan,  Commander  of  the  Army 

of  the  Potomac. 

Born  1826.      Died  1865. 


158  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

cers  were  fastened  upon  Lincoln;  and  a  personage  riding 
down  the  lines  cheered  by  the  soldiers  was  a  very  unusual 
thing,  so  that  the  enemy  must  have  known  that  he  was 
there. 

"Both  Mr.  Fox  and  myself  said  to  him,  "Let  us  not 
ride  on  the  side  next  to  the  enemy,  ]\Ir.  President. 
You  are  in  fair  rifle-shot  of  them,  and  they  may  open 
fire;  and  they  must  know  you,  being  the  only  person  not 
in  uniform,  and  the  cheering  of  the  troops  directs  their 
attention  to  vou. " 

'"Oh,  no,'  he  said  laughing,  'the  commander-in-chief 
of  the  army  must  not  show  any  cowardice  in  the  presence 
of  his  soldiers,  whatever  he  may  feel.' 

"And  he  insisted  upon  riding  the  whole  six  miles, which 
was  about  the  length  of  my  intrenchments,  in  that  po- 
sition, amusing  himself  at  intervals,  when  there  was 
nothing  more  attractive,  in  a  sort  of  competitive  exam- 
ination of  the  commanding-general  in  the  science  of  en- 
gineering. This  greatly  amused  my  engineer-in-chief, 
General  Weitzel,  wdio  rode  on  my  left,  and  who  was 
kindly  disposed  to  prompt  me  while  the  examination  was 
going  on.  This  attracted  the  attention  of  Mr.  Lincoln, 
who  said,  'Hold  on,  Weitzel,  I  can't  beat  yon,  but  I 
think  I  can  beat  Butler.' 

"I  give  this  incident  to  show  his  utter  unconcern  under 
circumstances  of  very  great  peril,  which  kept  the  rest  of 
us  in  a  continued  and  quite  painful  anxiety.  When  we 
reached  the  left  of  the  line  we  turned  off  toward  the  hos- 
pitals, which  were  quite  extensive  and  kept  in  most  ad- 
mirable order  by  my  medical  director,  Surgeon  McCor- 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  159 

mack.  The  President  passed  through  all  the  wards, 
stopping  and  speaking  very  kindly  to  some  of  the  poor 
fellows  as  they  lay  on  their  cots,  and  occasionally  admin- 
istering a  few  w^ords  of  commendation  to  the  \vard  mas- 
ter. Sometimes  when  reaching  a  patient  who  showed 
much  suffering  the  President's  eyes  w^ould  glisten  with 
tears.  The  effect  of  his  presence  upon  these  sick  men 
was  wonderful,  and  his  visit  did  great  good,  for  there 
was  no  medicine  which  was  equal  to  the  cheerfulness 
which  his  visit  so  largely  inspired." 

ERECTION  OF  THE  LINCOLN  MONUMENT  AT  SPRINGFIELI^. 

The  movement  for  the  erection  of  a  national  Lincoln 
monument  was  begun  immediately  after  the  assassination 
of  President  lyincoln,  but  it  was  not  until  Oct.  15,  1874, 
that  the  Springfield  memorial  was  dedicated,  that  city 
being  chosen  because  it  was  Lincoln's  home  when  he 
was  elected  to  the  Presidency.  The  monument  stands 
in  the  middle  of  six  acres  of  high  ground  in  Oak  Ridge 
cemetery.  It  is  of  massive  proportions,  of  bronze  and 
granite,  and  was  designed  by  Larkin  G.  Mead,  Jr.,  an 
American  artist.  Thirty-one  artists  of  national  repute 
competed  for  the  design,  among  them  being  Leonard 
Volk,  Harriet  Hosmer,  and  Vinnie  Ream.  Some  of  the 
designs  submitted  would  have  cost  $5,000,000,  but  all 
were  adjudged  as  being  of  artistic  merit,  and  it  was  only 
after  considerable  difficulty  in  making  a  choice  that  the 
design  submitted  by  Larkin  G.  Mead  of  Brattleboro,  Vt, 
was  accepted.  Whatever  may  be  said  in  criticism,  it 
cannot  be  denied  that  the  Lincoln  monument  is  an  im- 


i6o  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

posing  structure.  It  consists  of  a  central  granite  shaft, 
or  obelisk,  rising  from  a  massive,  square  base  to  a  height 
of  ninety-eight  feet.  Allegorical  figures  in  bronze  crown 
the  four  corners  of  the  pedestal.  A  bronze  statue  of  Lin- 
coln standing  in  relief  against  the  shining  granite  forms 
the  central  figure  of  the  groups  of  statuary.  The  monu- 
ment is  located  on  probably  the  highest  ground  in 
Springfield,  overlooking  the  capital  and  wide  stretches 
of  Illinois  prairie.  The  statue  of  Lincoln  had  been  com- 
mended as  one  of  the  most  natural  and  lifelike  represen- 
tations of  the  martyred  President.  He  is  represented  in 
the  attitude  of  making  a  public  address,  grasping  the 
emancipation  proclamation  in  one  hand.  He  stoops  a 
little,  he  is  angular,  his  cheeks  are  thin,  his  forehead 
deeply  wrinkled.  Old  lUinoisans  who  had  known  Lin- 
coln from  his  boyhood  pronounced  it  an  excellent  like- 
ness. The  front  of  the  pedestal  on  which  the  statue 
rests,  bears  the  coat  of  arms  of  the  United  States  in 
bronze.  The  American  eagle  on  the  shield  is  represent- 
ed as  having  broken  the  chain  of  slavery,  some  of  the 
links  being  grasped  in  his  talons,  and  the  rest  held  aloft 
in  his  beak.  An  olive  branch,  spurned,  is  thrust  aside  at 
his  feet. 

Memorial  hall,  in  the  base  of  the  monument,  is  filled 
with  various  Lincoln  relics  and  souvenirs.  One  of  the 
most  interesting  of  these  is  a  stone  from  the  wall  of  Ser- 
vius  Tullius,  presented  to  President  Lincoln  by  citizens 
of  Rome  in  1865.  It  is  a  large,  irregular  slab  of  sand- 
stone, on  which  is  carved  the  following  inscription  in 
Latin: 


/ 

/ 


The  Lincoln  Monument  at  Springfield,  111. 


1 62  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

*'To  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  for  the  second  time 
of  the  American  republic,  citizens  of  Rome  present  this 
stone  from  the  walls  of  Servius  TuUius,  by  which  the 
memory  of  each  of  those  brave  asserters  of  liberty  may 
be  associated.     Anno,  1865." 

•  After  Lincoln's  death  this  stone  was  found  in  the  base- 
ment of  the  capital  at  Washington.  It  is  supposed  that 
the  President,  not  caring  to  have  a  furore  raised  over  the 
incident,  had  ordered  the  stone  stored  away  without  say- 
ing anything  about  receiving  it.  The  body  of  Lincoln 
was  removed  to  the  crypt  in  the  monument  from  a  tem- 
porary tomb  in  the  public  vault  Oct.  9,  1874.  The  mar- 
ble sarcophagus  bears  the  inscription:  '^With  malice 
toward  none,  with  charity  for  all. — Lincoln."  The 
bodies  of  Mrs.  Lincoln  and  the  three  sons,  William,  Ed- 
ward, and  Thomas  (Thad),  have  also  been  placed  in  the 
monument.  Two  crypts  are  left  for  the  two  remaining 
members  of  the  family. 

The  national  Lincoln  monument  was  built  by  popular 
subscription.  Ex-Governor  Richard  J.  Oglesby  was  the 
president  of  the  association  which  had  the  matter  in 
charge.  Contributions  toward  the  monument  fund  came 
from  every  city  and  state  in  the  Union  and  from  every 
coimtry  in  the  world. 

LINCOLN'S  SADNESS. 

The  Honorable  Schuyler  Colfax,  in  his  funeral  oration 
at  Chicago,  said  of  him: — 

"He  bore  the  nation's  perils,  and  trials,  and  sorrows, 
ever  on  his  mind.     You  know  him,  in  a  large  degree,  by 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  163 

the  illustrative  stories  of  which  his  memory  and  his 
tongue  were  so  prolific,  using  them  to  point  a  moral,  or 
to  soften  discontent  at  his  decisions.  But  this  was  the 
mere  badinage  which  relieved  hiui  for  the  moment  from 
the  heavy  weight  of  public  duties  and  responsibilities  un- 
der which  he  often  wearied.  Those  whom  he  admitted 
to  his  confidence,  and  wuth  whom  he  conversed  of  his 
feelings,  knew  that  his  inner  life  was  checkered  with  the 
deepest  anxiety  and  most  discomforting  solicitude.  Elat- 
ed by  victories  for  the  cause  which  was  ever  in  his 
thoughts,  reverses  to  our  arms  cast  a  pall  of  depression 
over  him.  One  morning,  over  two  years  ago,  calling 
upon  him  on  business,  I  found  him  looking  more  than 
usually  pale  and  careworn,  and  inquired  the  reason.  He 
replied,  with  the  bad  news  he  had  received  at  a  late  hour 
the  previous  night,  which  had  not  yet  been  communi- 
cated to  the  press — he  had  not  closed  his  eyes  or  break- 
fasted; and  with  an  expression  I  shall  never  forget,  he 
exclaimed,  'How  willingly  would  I  exchange  places  to- 
day wdth  the  soldier  who  sleeps  on  the  ground  in  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac!'  " 

HIS   RELIGIOUS   EXPERIENCE. 

There  is  a  very  natural  and  proper  desire,  at  this  time, 
to  know  something  of  the  religious  experience  of  the  late 
President.  Two  or  three  stories  have  been  published  in 
this  connection,  which  1  have  never  yet  been  able  to  trace 
to  a  reliable  source,  and  I  feel  impelled  to  say  here,  that 
I  believe  the  facts  in  the  case — if  there  were  such — have 
been   added  to,  or  unwarrantably   embellished.     Of  all 


164  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

men  in  the  world,  ]\Ir.  Lincoln  was  the  most  unaffected 
and  truthful.  He  rarely  or  never  used  language  loosely 
or  carelessly,  or  for  the  sake  of  compliment.  He  was  the 
most  utterly  indifferent  to,  and  unconscious  of,  the  effect 
he  was  producing,  either  upon  official  representatives,  or 
the  common  people,  of  any  man  ever  in  public  position. 

Aside  from  emotional  expression,  I  believe  no  man 
had  a  more  abiding  sense  of  his  dependence  upon  God, 
or  faith  in  the  Divine  government,  and  in  the  power  and 
ultimate  triumph  of  Truth  and  Right  in  the  world.  In  the 
language  of  an  eminent  clergyman  of  this  city,  who  lately 
delivered  an  eloquent  discourse  upon  the  life  and  charac- 
ter of  the  departed  President,  "It  is  not  necessary  to  ap- 
peal to  apocryphal  stories,  in  circulation  in  the  newspa- 
pers— which  illustrate  as  much  the  assurance  of  his  visi- 
tors as  the  simplicity  of  his  faith  — for  proof  of  Mr.  Lin- 
coln's Christian  character."  If  his  daily  life  and  various 
public  addresses  and  writings  do  not  show  this,  surely 
nothing  can  demonstrate  it. 

But  while  inclined,  as  I  have  said,  to  doubt  the  truth 
of  some  of  the  statements  published  on  this  subject,  I 
feel  at  liberty  to  relate  an  incident,  which  bears  upon  its 
face  unmistakable  evidence  of  truthfulness.  A  lady  in- 
terested in  the  work  of  the  Christian  Commission  had 
occasion,  in  the  prosecution  of  her  duties,  to  have  several 
interviews  with  the  President  of  a  business  nature.  He 
was  much  impressed  with  the  devotion  and  earnestness 
of  purpose  she  manifested,  and  on  one  occasion,  after  she 
had  discharged  the  object  of  her  visit,  he  said  to  her: 
Mrs. ,  I  have  formed  a  very  high  opinion  of  your 


i( 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


165 


Christian  character,  and  now,  as  we  are  alone,  I  have  a 
mind  to  ask  you  to  give  me,  in  brief,  your  idea  of  what 
constitutes  a  true  religious  experience. "     The  lady  re- 


The  Old  State  House,  Springfield.    Completed  in  1840, 

Afterwards  used  as  the  Sangamon  County  Court  House.   The  Capitol  was  located 

at  Springfield  through  the  efforts  of  "The  Long  Nine,"  so-called  because 

the  combined  height  of  these  men  was  54  feet.    Lincoln 

was  a  member  of  this  delegation. 

plied  at  some  length,  stating  that,  in  her  judgment,  it 
consisted  of  a  conviction  of  one's  own  sinfulness  and 
weakness,  and  personal  need  of  the  Saviour  for  strength 
and  support;  that  views  of  mere  doctrine  might  and 
would  differ,  but  when  one  was  really  brought  to  feel 


1 66  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

his  need  of  Divine  help,  and  to  seek  the  aid  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  for  strength  and  guidance,  it  was  satisfactory  evi- 
dence of  his  having  been  born  again.  This  was  the  sub- 
stance of  her  reply.  When  she  had  concluded,  Mr.  Lin- 
coln was  very  thoughtful  for  a  few  moments.  He  at 
length  said,  very  earnestly,  "If  what  you  have  told  me 
is  really  a  correct  view  of  this  great  subject,  I  think  I 
can  say  with  sincerity,  that  I  hope  I  am  a  Christian.  I 
had  lived,"  he  continued,  "until  my  boy  Willie  died, 
without  realizing  fully  these  things.  That  blow  over- 
whelmed me.  It  showed  me  mv  weakness  as  I  had  never 
felt  it  before,  and  if  I  can  take  what  you  have  stated  as 
a  tcst^  I  think  I  can  safely  say  that  I  know  something  of 
that  chajige  of  which  you  speak;  and  I  will  further  add, 
that  it  has  been  my  intention  for  some  time,  at  a  suita- 
ble opportunity,  to  make  a  public  religious  profession!^' 
— Frank  B.  Carpenter. 

LEE'S  SURRENDER. 
"On  the  day  of  the  receipt  of  the  capitulation  of  Lee, 
as  we  learn  from  a  friend  intimate  with  the  late  President 
Lincoln,  the  cabinet  meeting  was  held  an  hour  earlier 
than  usual.  Neither  the  President  nor  any  member  was 
able,  for  a  time,  to  give  utterance  to  his  feelings.  At  the 
suggestion  of  Air.  Lincoln  all  dropped  on  their  knees, 
and  offered,  in  silence  and  in  tears,  their  humble  and 
heartfelt  acknowledorments  to  the  Almigrhtv  for  the  tri- 
umph  He  had  granted  to  the  National  cause." — "77/^ 
Wester 71  Christian  Advocate. ' ' 

LINCOLN   AND    HIS   ADVISERS. 

At  the  White  House  one  day  some  gentlemen  were 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  167 

present  from  the  West,  excited  and  troubled  about  the 
commissions  or  ommissions  of  the  Administration.  The 
President  heard  them  patiently,  and  then  replied: — "Gen- 
tlemen, suppose  all  the  property  you  were  worth  was  in 
gold,  and  you  had  put  it  in  the  hands  of  Blondin  to  carry 
across  the  Niagara  River  on  a  rope,  would  you  shake  the 
cable,  or  keep  shouting  out  to  him  — 'Blondin,  stand  up 
a  little  straighter— Blondin,  stoop  a  little  more — go  a  lit- 
tle faster— lean  a  little  more  to  the  north — lean  a  little 
more  to  the  south?  No,  you  would  hold  your  breath  as 
well  as  your  tongue,  and  keep  your  hands  off  until  he 
was  safe  over.  The  government  officials  are  carrying  an 
immense  weight.  Untold  treasures  are  in  their  hands. 
Ihey  are  doing  the  very  best  they  can.  Don't  badger 
them.     Keep  silence,  and  we'll  get  you  safe  across." 

HIS   FIRST   DOLLAR. 

On  one  occasion,  in  the  Executive  chamber,  there  were 
present  a  number  of  gentlemen,  among  them  ]Mr.  Sew- 
ard. 

A  point  in  the  conversation  suggesting  the  thought, 
Mr.  Lincoln  said:  "Seward,  you  never  heard,  did  you, 
how  I  earned  my  first  dollar?"  "No,"  said  Mr.  Seward. 
"Well,"  replied  he,  "I  was  about  eighteen  years  of  age. 
I  belonged,  you  know,  to  what  they  call  down  South,  the 
'scrubs;'  people  wdio  do  not  ow^n  slaves  are  nobody  there. 
But  we  had  succeeded  in  raising  chiefly  by  my  labor,  suf- 
ficient produce,  as  I  thought,  to  justify  me  in  taking  it 
down  the  river  to  sell. 

*'After  much  persuajion,  I  got  the  consent  of  mother  to 


i68 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


go,  and  constructed  a  little  flatboat,  large  enough  to  take 
a  barrel  or  two  of  things,  that  we  had  gathered,  with  my- 
self and  little  bundle,  down  to  New  Orleans.  A  steamer 
was  coming  down  the  river.  We  have,  you  know,  no 
wharves  on  the  Western  streams ;  and  the  custom  was,  if 

passengers  were  at  any  of  the 
landings,  for  them  to  go  out  in 
a  boat,  the  steamer  stopping 
and  taking  them  on  board. 

"I  was  contemplating  my 
new  flatboat,  and  wondering 
whether  I  could  make  it  strong- 
er or  improve  it  in  any  partic- 
ular, when  two  men  came  down 
to  the  shore  in  carriages  with 
trunks,  and  looking  at  the  dif- 
ferent boats  singled  out  mine, 
and  asked,  'Who  owns  this?'  I 
answered,  somewhat  modestly, 
'I  do.'  'Will  you,'  said  one  of 
them,  'take  us  and  our  trunks  out  to  the  steamer?'  'Cer- 
tainly,'said  I.  I  was  very  glad  to  have  the  chance  of  earn- 
ing something.  I  supposed  that  each  of  them  would  give 
me  two  or  three  bits.  The  trunks  were  put  on  my  flatboat, 
the  passengers  seated  themselves  on  the  trunks,  and  I 
sculled  them  out  to  the  steamboat. 

"They  got  on  board,  and  I  lifted  up  their  heavy  trunks, 
and  put  them  on  deck.  The  steamer  was  about  to  put 
on  steam  again,  when  I  called  out  that  they  had  forgot- 
ten to  pay  me.     Each  of  them  took  from  his  pocket  a 


Chas.  Sumner,  a  Supporter  of  Lin 
coin  during  his  Administration. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  169 

silver  half-dollar,  and  threw  it  on  the  floor  of  my  boat.  I 
could  scarcely  believe  my  eyes  as  I  picked  up  the  money. 
Gentlemen,  you  may  think  it  was  a  very  little  thing, 
and  in  these  days  it  seems  to  me  a  trifle;  but  it  was  a 
most  important  incident  in  my  life.  I  could  scarcely 
credit  that  I,  a  poor  boy,  had  earned  a  dollar  in  less  than 
a  day — that  by  honest  work  I  had  earned  a  dollar.  The 
world  seemed  wider  and  fairer  before  me.  I  was  a  more 
hopeful  and  confident  being  from  that  time." 

SAYINGS  OF  LINCOLN. 

When  the  white  man  governs  himself,  that  is  self-gov- 
ernment; but  when  he  governs  himself,  and  also  governs 
another  man,  that  is  more  than  self-government — that  is 
despotism. 

Little  by  little,  but  steadily  as  man's  march  to  the 
grave,  we  have  been  giving  up  the  old  for  the  new  faith. 
Near  eighty  years  ago  we  began  by  declaring  that  all 
men  are  created  equal;  but  now  from  that  beginning  we 
have  run  down  to  the  other  declaration  that  for  some 
men  to  enslave  others  is  a  "sacred  right  of  self-govern- 
ment. ' '  These  principles  cannot  stand  together.  They 
are  as  opposite  as  God  and  Mammon;  and  whoever  holds 
to  one  must  despise  the  other. 

So  I  say,  in  relation  to  the  principle  that  all  men  are 
created  equal,  let  it  be  as  nearly  reached  as  we  can.  If 
we  cannot  give  freedom  to  every  creature,  let  us  do  noth- 
ing that  will  impose  slavery  upon  any  other  creature. 

All  honor  to  Jefferson  — to  the  man  who,  in  the  con- 
crete pressure  of  a  struggle  for  national  independence  by 


lyo  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

a  single  people,  had  the  coolness,  forecast,  and  capacity  to 
introduce  into  a  merely  revolutionary  document  an  ab- 
stract truth,  applicable  to  all  men  and  all  times,  and  so 
to  embalm  it  there,  that  to-day  and  in  all  coming  days  it 
shall  be  a  rebuke  and  stumbling-block  to  the  harbingers 
of  reappearing  tyranny  and  oppression. 

Intelligence,  patriotism,  Christianity,  and  a  firm  re- 
liance on  Him  who  has  never  yet  forsaken  this  favored 
land,  are  still  competent  to  adjust,  in  the  best  way,  all 
our  present  difficulties. 

I  w^ould  despise  myself  if  I  supposed  myself  ready  to 
deal  less  liberally  wath  an  adversary  than  I  would  be 
willing  to  be  treated  mvself. 

In  a  storm  at  sea,  no  one  on  board  can  wish  the  ship 
to  sink;  and  yet,  not  unfrequently,  all  go  down  together, 
because  too  many  will  direct,  and  no  single  mind  can  be 
allowed  to  control. 

I  shall  try  to  correct  errors  wdien  shown  to  be  errors, 
and  I  shall  adopt  new  views  so  fast  as  they  shall  appear 
to  be  true  views. 

We  will  speak  for  freedom  and  against  slavery,  as  long 
as  the  Constitution  of  our  country  guarantees  free  speech, 
until  everywdiere  on  this  wide  land,  the  sun  shall  shine 
and  the  rain  shall  fall  and  the  wind  blow  upon  no  man 
who  goes  forth  to  unrequited  toil. 

There  are  two  ways  of  establishing  a  proposition. 
One  is,  by  trying  to  demonstrate  it  upon  reason;  and  the 
other  is,  to  show  that  great  m.en  in  former  times  have 
thought  so  and  so,  and  thus  to  pass  it  by  the  weight  of 
pure  authority. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  171 

Neither  let  11s  be  slandered  from  our  duty  by  false  ac- 
cusations against  us,  nor  frightened  from  it  by  menaces 
of  destruction  to  the  Government,  nor  of  dungeons  to 
ourselves.  Let  us  have  faith  that  right  makes  might, 
and  in  that  faith,  let  us,  to  the  end,  dare  to  do  our  duty, 
as  we  understand  it. 

I  hold  that  in  the  contemplation  of  universal  law  and 
of  the  Constitution,  the  Union  of  these  States  is  perpet- 
ual. Perpetuity  is  implied,  if  not  expressed,  in  the  fun- 
damental law  of  all  national  governments. 

If  the  Almighty  Ruler  of  nations,  with  his  eternal 
truth  and  justice,  be  on  your  side  of  the  North,  or  on 
your  side  of  the  South,  that  truth  and  that  justice  will 
surely  prevail  by  the  judgment  of  this  great  tribunal,  the 
American  people. 

EXTRACTS  FROM  LINCOLN'S  SPEECHES. 

FIRST   INAUGURAL   ADDRESS. 

"The  Union  is  much  older  than  the  Constitution.  It  was  formed, 
in  fact,  by  the  Articles  of  Association  in  1774.  It  was  matured  and 
and  continued  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence  in  1776.  It  was 
further  matured,  and  the  faith  of  all  the  then  thirteen  States  expressly 
plighted  and  engaged  that  it  should  be  perpetual,  by  the  Articles  of 
Confederation,  in  1778;  and  finally,  in  1787,  one  of  the  declared  ob- 
jects for  ordaining  and  establishing  the  Constitution  was  to  form  a 
more  perfect  Union.  But  if  the  destruction  of  the  Union  by  one  or  by 
a  part  only  of  the  States  be  lawfully  possible,  the  Union  is  less  than 
before,  the  Constitution  having  lost  the  vital  element  of  perpetuity. 

"It  follows  from  these  views  that  no  State,  upon  its  own  mere  mo- 
tion, can  lawfully  get  out  of  the  Union;  that  resolves  and  ordinances 
to  that  effect,  are  legally  void;  and  that  acts  of  violence  within  any 
State  or  States  against  the  authority  of  the  United  States,  are  insurrec- 
tionary or  revolutionary,  according  to  circumstances 


172  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

"Physically  speaking  we  cannot  separate;  we  cannot  remove  our 
respective  sections  from  each  other,  nor  build  an  impassable  wall  be- 
tween them.  A  husband  and  wife  may  be  divorced,  and  go  out  of  the 
presence  and  beyond  the  reach  of  each  other,  but  the  different  parts 
of  our  country  cannot  do  this.  They  cannot  but  remain  face  to  face; 
and  intercourse,  either  amicable  or  hostile,  must  continue  between 
them.  Is  it  possible,  then,  to  make  that  intercourse  more  advantageous 
or  more  satisfactory  after  separation  than  before?  Can  aliens  make 
treaties  easier  than  friends  can  make  laws?  Can  treaties  be  more 
faithfully  enforced  between  aliens  than  laws  can  among  friends?  .... 

"Intelligence,  patriotism,  Christianity,  and  a  firm  reliance  on  Him 
who  has  never  yet  forsaken  this  favored  land,  are  still  competent  to 
adjust,  in  the  best  way,  all  our  present  difficulties. 

"In  your  hands,  my  dissatisfied  fellow-countrymen,  and  not  in 
mine,  is  the  momentous  issue  of  civil  war.  The  Government  will  not 
assail  you. 

"You  can  have  no  conflict  without  being  yourselves  the  aggress- 
ors. You  have  no  oath  registered  in  Heaven  to  destroy  the  Govern- 
ment; while  I  shall  have  the  most  solemn  one  to  'preserve,  protect, 
and  defend'  it. 

"I  am  loath  to  close.  We  are  not  enemies,  but  friends.  We 
must  not  be  enemies.  Though  passion  may  have  strained,  it  must 
not  break  our  bonds  of  affection. 

"The  mystic  cords  of  memory,  stretching  from  every  battle-field 
and  patriot  grave  to  every  living  heart  and  hearthstone  all  over  this 
broad  land,  will  yet  swell  the  chorus  of  the  Union,  when  again  touched, 
as  surely  they  will  be,  by  the  better  angels  of  our  nature." 

DEDICATORY   ADDRESS   AT   GETTYSBURG. 

The  version  here  given  is  a  literal  transcript  of  the  speech  Mr. 
Lincoln  wrote  out  for  a  fair  in  Baltimore,  Nov.  19,  1863. 

"Fourscore  and  seven  years  ago  our  fathers  brought  forth  on  this 
continent  a  new  nation,  conceived  in  Liberty,  and  dedicated  to  the 
proposition  that  all  men  are  created  equal.  Now  we  are  engaged  in 
a  great  civil  war,  testing  whether  that  nation,  or  any  nation  so  con- 
ceived and  so  dedicated,  can  long  endure.  We  are  met  on  a  great 
battle-field  of  that  war.  We  have  come  to  dedicate  a  portion  of  that 
field  as  the  final  resting-place  for  those  who  here  gave  their  lives  that 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  173 

that  nation  might  live.  It  is  altogether  fitting  and  proper  that  we 
should  do  this. 

"But  in  a  larger  sense  we  cannot  dedicate, — we  cannot  consecrate, 
— we  cannot  hallow — this  ground.  The  brave  men,  living  and  dead, 
who  struggled  here,  have  consecrated  it  far  above  our  poor  power  to 
add  or  detract.  The  world  will  little  note,  nor  long  remember  what 
we  say  here,  but  it  can  never  forget  what  they  did  here.  It  is  for  us, 
the  living,  rather  to  be  dedicated  here  to  the  unfinished  work  which 
they  who  have  fought  here  have  thus  far  so  nobly  advanced. 

"It  is  rather  for  us  to  be  here  dedicated  to  the  great  task  remain- 
ing before  us — that  from  these  honored  dead  we  take  increased  devo- 
tion to  the  cause  for  which  they  gave  the  last  full  measure  of  devo- 
tion— that  we  here  highly  resolve  that  the  dead  shall  not  have  died  in 
vain, — that  this  nation  under  God,  shall  have  a  new  birth  of  freedom, 
— and  that  the  government  of  the  people,  by  the  people  for  the  peo- 
ple, shall  not  perish  from  the  earth." 

FAST   DAY   PROCLAMATION,   MARCH   30,    1863. 

"Whereas,  It  is  the  duty  of  nations,  as  well  as  of  men,  to  own 
their  dependence  upon  the  overruling  power  of  God,  to  confess  their 
sins  and  transgressions  in  humble  sorrow,  yet  with  assured  hope  that 
genuine  repentance  will  lead  to  mercy  and  pardon,  and  to  recognize 
the  sublime  truth  announced  in  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  proven  by 
all  history,  that  those  nations  only  are  blessed  whose  God  is  the  Lord. 

"And,  insomuch  as  we  know  that,  by  his  Divine  laws,  nations,  like 
individuals,  are  subjected  to  punishments  and  chastisements  in  this 
world,  may  we  not  justly  fear  that  the  awful  calamity  of  civil  war, 
which  now  desolates  the  land,  may  be  but  a  punishment  inflicted  upon 
us  for  our  presumptuous  sins,  to  the  needful  end  of  our  National  ref- 
ormation as  a  whole  people? 

"We  have  been  the  recipients  of  the  choicest  bounties  of  Heaven. 
We  have  been  preserved,  these  many  years,  in  peace  and  prosperity. 
We  have  grown  in  numbers,  wealth  and  power,  as  no  other  nation  has 
ever  grown.  But  we  have  forgotten  God.  We  have  forgotten  the 
gracious  hand  which  preserved  us  in  peace,  and  multiplied  and  en- 
riched and  strengthened  us;  and  we  have  vainly  imagined,  in  the  de- 
ceitfulness  of  our  hearts,  that  all  these  blessings  were  produced  by 
some  superior  wisdom  and  virtue  of  our  own." 


^7+ 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


Gen.  W.  T.  Sherman. 
Born  1820.    Died  1891. 


Gen.  Philip  H.  Sheridan. 
Born  1831.    Died  1888. 


THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

FOR  A  SCHOOL  OR  CLUB  PROGRAMME. 

Kacli  numbered  paragraph  is  to  be  given  to  a  pupil  or 
member  to  read,  or  to  recite,  in  a  clear,  distinct  tone. 

If  the  school  or  club  is  small,  each  person  may  take 
three  or  four  paragraphs,  but  should  not  be  required  to 
recite  them  in  succession. 

1.  Abraham   Lincoln   was   born   Feb.  I2,   1809,  in  the  county  of 
LaRue,  in  the  state  of  Kentucky. 

2.  He  first  attended  school  at  Little  Pidgeon  Creek  in  the  win- 
ter of  1819. 

3.  Three   or  four  years  later  he  attended  Crawford's  school  in 
the  same  locality. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  I75 

4.  In  1826,  he  received  his  last  schooling  under  the  tuition  of 
Mr.  Swaney.  To  reach  this  "institution  of  learning,"  he  walked  four 
miles  and  a  half  each  way. 

5.  Later,  as  a  "hired  boy,"  he  taught  himself  as  best  he  could 
with  his  rude  surroundings,  often  "ciphering"  on  a  wooden  fire  shovel 
or  anything  else  that  came  in  his  way. 

6.  His  reading  was  very  limited,  being  confined  to  two  or  three 
books,  but  fortunately  he  had  access  to  the  great  fountain  of  J3iblical 
literature. 

7.  Obtaining  access  to  the  "Revised  Statutes  of  Indiana,"  which 
could  not  be  loaned  from  the  constable's  office,  he  early  laid  the 
foundation  for  legal  study. 

8.  In  1831,  he  went  to  New  Orleans  on  a  flat-boat,  with  a  little 
cargo  of  pork,  hogs  and  corn.  It  was  here  that  he  first  saw  some  of 
the  abominations  of  slavery  and  the  slave  trade.  The  workings  of 
the  system  greatly  depressed  him,  and  drew  from  him  the  emphatic 
and  almost  prophetic  exclamation,  ''If  I  ever  get  a  chance  to  hit  slav- 
ery,  r II  hit  it  hard.'' 

9.  It  was  after  his  return  from  this  trip  that  he  found  an  English 
grammar,  and  mastered  it  by  the  light  of  pine  knots  during  the  long 
winter  evenings. 

10.  The  Black  Hawk  war  broke  out  in  1832,  and  Lincoln  enlist- 
ed. Although  without  military  experience,  his  personal  popularity 
made  him  the  captain  of  his  company. 

11.  After  the  war  was  over  he  became  a  candidate  for  the  State 
Legislature,  and  although  he  was  defeated, the  campaign  was  of  great 
service  to  him  in  the  way  of  experience. 

12.  He  began  the  study  of  law  with  borrowed  books,  and  put  his 
own  knowledge  into  practice  by  drawing  up  legal  papers,  and  also 
conducting  small  cases  without  remuneration. 

13.  Many  volumes  pertaining  to  the  sciences  now  found  their 
way  into  his  hands,  and  also  some  of  the  standard  works  of  literature. 

14.  He  then  sought  and  obtained  the  position  of  deputy  surveyor 
of  Sangamon  County,  and  in  this  work  he  became  an  expert.  He  was 
often  sought  for  as  a  referee  when  trouble  arose  concerning  boun- 
dary lines,  etc. 

15.  From  1833  to  1836  he  was  the  postmaster  of  New  Salem, 
having  received  the  appointment  as  a  Jackson  democrat. 

16.  It  was  during  this  time  that  he  again  became  a  candidate  for 
the  Legislature.  His  campaign  was  personally  conducted,  and  this 
time  he  was  the  victorious  candidate. 

17.  It  was  at  this  session  of  the  legislature  that  he  met  his  great 
opponent,  Stephen  A.  Douglas.  In  time,  he  fully  accorded  him  the 
title  of  "The  Little  Giant." 

18.  In  August  of  1835,  Lincoln  met  with  a  terrible  loss,  being  no 


176  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

less  than  the  death  of  Anne  Rutledge,  the  beautiful  girl  to  whom  he 
was  betrothed.  Nearly  thirty  years  afterward  he  spoke  lovingly  of 
her  to  an  old  friend.  "The  death  of  this  fair  girl,"  said  Mr.  Herndon, 
"shattered  Lincoln's  happiness.  He  threw  off  his  infinite  sorrow  only 
by  leaping  wildly  into  the  political  arena." 

19.  In  1836,  he  was  again  a  candidate  for  the  legislature.  He 
was  self-nominated,  for  this  was  before  the  days  of  caucuses  and  con- 
ventions. In  the  New  Salem  Journal  he  announced  his  platform, 
which  contained  a  suffrage  plank  to  the  effect  that  all  men  and 
women  who  either  bore  arms,or  paid  taxes,  should  be  allowed  to  vote. 

20.  Lincoln  was  elected  in  triumph.  Sangamon  County,  which 
had  usually  gone  Democratic,  voting  the  Whig  ticket  by  more  than 
four  hundred  majority. 

21.  In  1837,  Mr.  Lincoln  moved  to  Springfield,  where  his  active 
life  as  a  lawyer  began,  the  State  Capital  having  been  moved  about 
that  time  from  Vandalia. 

22.  In  November  of  1842,  he  was  married  to  Miss  Mary  Todd. 

23.  Mr.  Lincoln  was  first  elected  to  Congress  in  1846. 

24.  One  year  later  he  took  his  seat  as  a  member  of  the  Thirtieth 
Congress.  Other  notable  members  at  this  time  were  Ex-President 
John  Quincv  Adams,  Andrew  Johnson,  Alex.  H.  Stephens,  besides 
Robert  Toombs,  Robert  B.  Rhett,  and  others.  In  the  Senate  were 
Daniel  Webster,  Simon  Cameron,  Lewis  Cass,  John  C.  Calhoun  and 
Jefferson  Davis. 

25.  At  the  close  of  his  Congressional  services  in  1849,  Mr.  Lin- 
coln returned  to  Springfield  and  resumed  the  practice  of  law,  al- 
though his  fees  were  considered  by  his  legal  brethren  "ridiculously 
small." 

26.  During  the  contest  in  Kansas,  in  1855,  Lincoln's  views  on 
the  subject  of  slavery  were  fully  expressed  in  a  radical  letter  to  Mr. 
Speed. 

27.  In  1858,  Lincoln  held  his  notable  debates  with  Stephen  A. 
Douglas. 

28.  In  i860,  Abraham  Lincoln  received  the  nomination  of  the  Re- 
publican party  for  the  presidency,  Stephen  A.  Douglas  was  the  nom- 
inee of  the  Democratic  party  and  these  two  prominent  men  were 
again  rivals. 

29.  Threatening  times  succeeded  his  election  with  the  whole 
country  ai'oused  by  threats  of  secession. 

30.  In  March  of  1861,  he  was  inaugurated  amidst  the  most  om- 
inous conditions  that  a  new  president  was  ever  called  upon  to  face. 

31.  He  delivered  an  inaugural  address  which  for  wisdom,  and 
consistency  has  never  been  surpassed. 

32.  Following  the  fall  of  Fort  Sumter,  Mr.  Lincoln  issued  on  the 
15th  of  April  a  call  for  75000  volunteers. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


/  / 


33.  Four  days  later  he  issued  a  proclamation  for  the  blockade 
of  Southern  ports. 

34.  In  1862,  he  met  with  the  terrible  loss  by  death  of  his  son  Wil- 
lie. In  the  midst  of  this  great  trial  his  thou^,dits  reverted  to  his  own 
mother  whom  he  lost  when  a  child,  "I  remember  her  prayers,"  he  said 
"they  have  always  followed  me— they  have  clung  to  me  all  my  life  " 

35.  During  the  long  war  he 
was  everywhere  busy  doing  ev- 
erything jjossible  for  the  com- 
fort of  the  soldiers,  especially 
the  sick  and  wounded. 

36.  On  Jan.  ist,  1863,  the 
Emancipation  Proclamation  was 
issued. 

37.  Following  logically  the 
policy  of  the  Emancipation  Act, 
he  began  the  experiment  of  in- 
troducing colored  troops  into 
the  armies  of  the  United  States. 

38.  In  December  of  1863, 
he  made  General  Grant  the 
commander-in-chief  of  all  the 
Union  armies. 

39.  In  1864,  Abraham  Lin- 
coln was  again  elected  president 
of  the  Laiited  States. 

40.  About  the  middle  of  August  1864,  an  attempt  was  made  upon 
Lincoln's  life  one  evening  as  he  was  riding  back  from  the  Soldier's 
Home.  The  bullet  of  the  would-be  assassin  passed  through  the  silk 
hat  which  the  president  wore,  but  at  his  request  the  matter  was  kept 
very  quiet. 

41.  Early  in  December  he  submitted  to  Congress  his  fourth  an- 
nual message^  and  this  was  followed  by  the  passage  of  the  Constitu- 
tional Amendment  forever  prohibiting  slavery  in  the  territory  of  the 
United  States. 

42.  On  March  4th,  1865,  Mr.  Lincoln  was  again  inaugurated  as 
President  of  the  United  States. 

43.  The  great  rebellion  was  brought  to  a  successful  close  with 
great  rejoicing  over  General  Lee's  surrender. 

44.  On  the  afternoon  before  his  death  he  signed  a  pardon  for  a 
soldier  who  was  under  a  death  sentence.  This  act  of  mercy  was  his 
last  official  order. 

45.  On  the  14th  of  April  he  fell  by  the  hand  of  an  assassin  and 
the  nation  was  in  mourning. 


Gen.  U.  S.  Grant. 
Born  IvS'JJ.      Died  1885. 


178  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

PROGRAMME  FOR  A  LINCOLN  ENTERTAINMENT. 

1.  Music— "The  Red,  White  and  Blue." 

2.  Recitation— Mr.  Lincoln's  favorite  poem,  "Oh  why  should  the 
Spirit  of  Mortal  be  Proud?" 

3.  Essay — Early  Life  of  Lincoln  and  the  books  that  he  read. 

4.  Recitation — Extracts  from  first  Inaugural  Address. 

5.  Dramatic  Scene — L'ncle  Sam  and  Miss  Columbia  receiving 
the  Presidents.  (A  boy  dressed  as  Uncle  Sam  and  a  girl  as  Col- 
umbia, should  stand  on  the  platform  receiving  the  Presidents  as  they 
arrive,  dressed  in  the  costume  of  their  period,  Washington  being  the 
first.  They  may  be  introduced  by  some  one  representing  a  hero  uf 
the  War  of  the  Rebellion.) 

6.  Recitation — Bryant's  Abraham  Lincoln. 

7.  Music — "We  are  Coming  Father  Abraham,  Three  Hundred 
Thousand  Strong." 

ALTERNATE    PROGRAMME. 

Music — "Tramp,  Tramp,  the  Boys  are  Marching." 
Recitation — Lincoln's  Address  at  Gettysburg. 
Anecdotes  of  Lincoln. 
Music — "Marching  Through  Georgia." 
Recitation — Lowell's  Commemorative  Ode. 
Music— "John  Brown's  Body." 
Tableau — Lincoln  Freeing  the  Slave. 
Music— "Hail  Columbia." 


QUESTIONS  FOR  REVIEW. 

IV/icre  and zi'/ien  was  Abraham  Lincoln  born?  What  can yotisay 
of  his  oiun  mother?  What  canyon  say  of  Ids  step-7)iothcr?  Il7iat 
sort  of  a  jnan  was  his  father?  What  were  the  early  educatio7ial  ad- 
vantages of  Abraham  Lincoln?  Describe  his  early  honie?  What 
books  famished  his  early  reading?  From  whence  did  he  de?'ive  his 
first  knowledge  of  law?  Wliat  can  you  say  of  his  boyish  character? 
How  did  he  earn  his  first  dollar?  What  was  his  first  business  ven- 
ture? IVhat  was  his  experience  in  the  Black  Hawk  Jl'ar?  JVhat 
can  y  021  say  of  his  first  political  work?  W hot  and  where  was  he  a 
postmaster?  Describe  his  first  political  canvass?  Describe  his  per- 
sonal appearance  ? 

Describe  his  second  political  campaign  ?  When  and  where  did  he 
first  7neet  Stephen  A.  Douglas?  IThat  can  you  say  of  his  relation  to 
7iational Politics  i7t  co7inectio7i  with  the  legislature  of  i8j6-jy  ? 

What  were  his  early  views  07t  the  subject  of  slavery  ?  What  ca7i  say 
of  Elijah  P.  Lovejoy?     JlViat  relation  did  LJ7icoln  sustai7i  to  the  cam- 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


79 


paign  0/1844?  IVhaf  can  you  say  of  tJie  Wibnot  Proviso?  What  did 
Caton  say  of  Lincoln?  What  can  you  say  of  Lincobi  s  eulogy  upon 
Henry  Clay? 

Describe  the  long  rivalry  belween  Douglas  and  Lincoln  ?  Des- 
cribe /lis  relation  ivith  the  republican  cotivention  of  Lllinois  in  i8j8  ? 
Describe  his  address  at  Cooper  Lnstitute  in  Feb.  of  i860?  Describe  his 
first  nomination  for  the  presidency  ?  Give  a  synopsis  of  his  last  fire- 
■icell  to  citisens  of  Springfield?  Give  an  account  of  his  first  in- 
augural? Recite  briefly  the  principal  events  connected  with  his  first 
term?  Gi^'e  a  synopsis  of  his  second  inaugural  address?  Give  a 
brief  synopsis  of  his  address  at  Gettysburg? 

Describe  his  character  and  also  his  personal  appearance  while  he 
was pi'esidejit?  L?t  what  way  did  he  usually  exercise  exectitive  clem- 
ency? Mention  a  few  ijistancesof  tJiis?  What  was  his  last  official  act? 
/  Vhen  and  how  did  he  die  ?  I  Vhat  can  you  say  of  the  national  grief? 
Describe  some  of  the  scenes  connected  with  the  passing  of  his  body  from 
the  Capital  to  the  tomb  ? 

In  reviewing  his  career  what  do  you  consider  the  most  important 
of  his  official  acts?  What  is  the  goieral  verdict  of  history  tipon  the 
character  of  the  man  ? 

SUBJECTS  FOR  SPECIAL  STUDY 

/.  The  A^ebraska  Coiitroversy. 

2.  The  humor  of  Lincoln. 

J.  The  eloquence  of  Lijicoln. 

4.  Contrast  betiueeji  Douglas  and  Liiicoln. 

5.  The  Emancipation  Proclajnation. 

6.  I^incohi  and  Seward. 

y.    Lincoln  a7id  I/orace  Greeley. 
8.    I^incoln  and  Stanton. 
o.    Lincoln  as  a  Statesma?!. 


CHRONOLOGICAL  EVENTS  IN  THE  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN. 

1809,  Born  in  LaRiie  Connty,  Kentucky,  Feb.  12, 

1816.  Moved  with  his  parents  to  Indiana. 

1830.  Moved  with  his  father  and  step-mother  to  Macon  County,  111. 

1 831.  Constructed  a  flat-boat  and  made  a  successful  trip  to  New  Or- 

leans and  back. 

1832.  Served  as  clerk  in  the  store  of  Mr.Offutt.  Captain  of  \'()Iunteers. 

in  IMack  Hawk  War. 

1833.  Einl)arked  in  politics  and  studied  law.     Defeated  for  the  legis- 

lature.    Appointed  postmaster  at  New  Salem,  111. 
1834- 1840.     Elected  successively  to  the  legislature.     Making  Spring-. 

field  his  home. 
J842.     November,  married  Mary  Todd,  daughter  of  the  Hon.  Robert 

S.  Todd  of  Lexington,  Ky. 
1846.     Elected  to  Congress  over  his  competitor,  Rev,  Peter  Cartwright. 


i8o  ABRAHAM  LINXOLX. 

1848.     Made  speeches  in  favor  of  General   Taylor  for  the  Presidency. 

1854.  Made  earnest  speeches  in   favor  of  the  Anti-Nebraska  move- 

ment. 

1855.  Defeated  for  the  United  States  Senate  by  Lyman  Trumbull. 

Declined  the  offered  nomination  for  Governor  of  Illinois. 

1856.  Headed  the  Electoral  ticket  for  General  Fremont  as  President. 
1858.     Engaged  in  the  famous  debates  with  Stejjhen  A.  Douglas. 
i860.     Delivered  his  speech  in  Cooper  Institute,  New  York  City,  Feb. 

27.  Received  the  Republican  Nomination  for  the  Presidencv, 
at  Chicago,  May.     Elected  to  the  Presidency  November  6. 

1861.  Delivered  his  wonderful  inauguration  address  at  Washington. 

D.  C,  March  4.  Called  for  75000  men  to  preserve  the  I  nion 
April  15.  Blockade  of  Southern  ports  declared  April  ig. 
Called  for  42,034  Volunteers  May  3.  P^irst  Message  to  Con- 
gress July  4.  Appointed  a  Fast  Day  on  August  12,  for  the  last 
Thursday  in  September. 

1862.  Sent  special  Message  to  Congress  for  the  gradual  abolishment 

of  slavery,  March  6.  vSigned  bill  for  the  abolishing  of  slavery 
in  the  District  of  Columbia  April  16.  Preliminary  Proclama- 
tion of  Emancipation  issued  September  22.  Annual  Message 
to  Congress  Dec.  i. 

1863.  Final  Proclamation  of  Emancipation  made  Jan.  i.     Sent  reply 

to  the  testimonial  of  Sympathy  and  Contidence  from  the  work- 
ingmen  of  Manchester,  England  Jan.  19.  Inaugurated  the 
custom  of  setting  apart  a  common  day  throughout  the  land 
for  thanksgiving — the  last  Thursday  in  November.  The  re- 
nowned dedicatory  address  at  the  consecration  of  the  Na- 
tional Cemetery  at  Gettysburg,  Nov.  19.  Annual  Message 
to  Congress  Dec.  9. 

1864.  Re-elected  President,  November  8. 

1865.  Delivered  second  inaugural  address,  one  of  the  greatest  state 

papers  that  history  has  preserved.  Entered  Richmond  with 
the  Union  Army,  April  1 1.  Assassinated  by  J.  Wilkes  Booth, 
April  14.     Buried  at  Springfield,  Illinois,  May  4. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

For  those  who  wish  to  read  more  extensively,  the  following  works 
are  especially  commended: 

"Life  of  Lincoln,"  by  Nicolay  &  Hay.     Ten  vols.     The  Century  Co. 
"Life  of  Lincoln,"  by  Herndon  &  W'eik.     Two  vols.    Appleton  &  Co. 
"Life  of  Lincoln,"  bv  Ward  H.  Lamon,     J.  R.  Osgood  X:  Co. 
"Life  of  Lincoln,"  by  Isaac  N.  Arnold.    A.  C.  McClurg  &  Co. 
"Life  of  Lincoln,"  by  John  T.  Morse,  Jr.    Houghton,  Mifflin  li:  Co. 
"Life  on  the  Circuit  with  Lincoln,''  by  Henry  C.  Whitney.    Estes  .i- 

Lauriet. 
"Life  of  Lincoln,"  bv  Wm.  O.  Stoddard.     Fords,  Howard  &:   Huibert. 
"Life  of  Lincoln,"  by  J.  G.  Holland. 


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